GeoStudio 2019

Highlights

GeoStudio 2019 gives you the ability to analyze several different cross-sections in a single file; it simplifies working with reinforcements; and it more easily integrates with 3D CAD products through improved DWG/DXF import.

We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release. Keep in mind that even though the file format has changed between this release and the previous, GeoStudio 2019 will still be able to open older files and examine computed results. GeoStudio 2019 will install side-by-side with any other GeoStudio versions you already have installed.

The major new features include:

• Improved reinforcement load definition: Define reinforcement properties separately from the lines to which they are ascribed. Reinforcement lines can be snapped to the ground surface, so that they move with the ground surface.

• Reinforcement sets: Draw, orientate, and space multiple reinforcement lines simultaneously, and associate the entire set with a particular reinforcement.

• Multiple geometries: Each analysis branch can operate on a different "geometry", providing the ability to vary slope angles, geology, and mesh attributes if conducting a finite element analysis.

• Improved workflow with 3D CAD files: Import DWG files of cross-sections created by 3D CAD applications such as Civil 3D and Leapfrog Works: materials and regions can be created, the geometry simplified and translated to the origin. Import MicroStation DGN files as sketch pictures.

• Improved sketch: Embed pictures right in the .gsz file so they are not blank after emailing a file; give background colors and borders to text and tables, and control their alignment.

All Products

Feature:
Multiple geometries: all analyses at the root of the analysis tree can be assigned a different "geometry", or different regions. Experiment by varying slope angles, varying geology, varying mesh density, or group related projects in a single .gsz file. All geometries in a .gsz can use the same materials and boundary conditions, but will have separate regions, graphs, and sketch objects. Use the new "Geometry" tab in Define Analyses, and the "Clone Geometry" command, to work with multiple geometries.

Feature:
The File Import command allows importing materials from DWG/DXF layer names. Each layer selected for import can be used as the name of a material, and all regions imported from closed polygons on that layer will be associated with that material. The layer color will be used as the material color.

Feature:
The File Import command can simplify the regions that are imported by removing unnecessary points along straight lines. Select a simplification level from 1-10. This simplifies the mesh for finite element analyses, and slice discretization in SLOPE/W analyses, and can thus make GeoStudio more responsive working with large, complex domains, as well as solving faster.

Feature:
The File Import command can translate the imported regions along the x axis so the leftmost point is at y=0, and/or along the y axis so the bottommost point is at x=0, in order to have more readable coordinates.

Feature:
With the Sketch Pictures command, you can choose to link to pictures (which is what previous versions of GeoStudio do) or to insert (embed) them in the .gsz. Inserted pictures will cause the .gsz file to be larger, but means anyone who opens the .gsz will see the pictures.

Feature:
The Sketch Pictures command allows sizing and positioning pictures by typing in coordinates instead of only using the mouse.

Feature:
The Sketch Text dialog box has been split into two tabs, one for the text itself and a second for text properties.

Feature:
The Sketch Text command allows choosing the anchor point, to better align text that varies in width or height.

Feature:
GeoStudio is a completely 64-bit application, allowing it to access more memory and thus handle larger or more complex analyses. A 32-bit installer is available for older 32-bit operating systems.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio can crash in Results view if analyses have been deleted.

Bug fix:
AutoCAD files with minor variance in the geometry 3D planes cannot be imported since they aren't considered coplanar. GeoStudio displays an error indicating that multiple planes exist in the file. The coplanar tolerance has been relaxed to allow for minor variance in the plane normal vectors, allowing slightly non-coplanar geometry to be imported.

Bug fix:
Modify Objects does not work with Sketch Material Tables or Sketch Boundary Condition Tables.

Bug fix:
Template files do not work properly if they include a mesh or a dataset (files created using such a template would not include the dataset or the mesh).

Bug fix:
When a .gsz file is exported or downgraded, datasets and the mesh could be lost in the process.

Bug fix:
When exporting to DXF or DWG, color-filled entities show a mesh of triangles over the color fill.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
Reinforcement properties are defined and named using the new Define Reinforcements command. The layout and labelling of the dialog box has been improved as well.

Feature:
Reinforcement lines are added to the drawing using Define Reinforcement Lines or Draw Reinforcement Lines. The reinforcement line is the starting coordinate (typically at the ground surface) and the angle and length of the reinforcement. Multiple reinforcement lines can be associated with a single named reinforcement.

Feature:
Reinforcement lines can be snapped to the ground surface, such that they move in response to changes to the surface geometry.

Feature:
Draw or Define Reinforcement Sets to evenly distribute a large number of reinforcement lines along a slope.

Highlights

We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

The major new features include:

• Combine full and basic analyses in one file: Unlock the power of integration by combining analyses created with a basic license and a full license in the same file. For example, combining a full SLOPE/W analysis with a basic SEEP/W analysis allows the stability analysis to use pore-water pressure conditions computed from a steady-state finite element seepage analysis.

• User-defined reinforcements: Model a wide range of reinforcements by defining them as a function of force vs. distance.

• Performance: Improved performance and memory consumption when working with large projects.

• AutoCAD 2018 files: Import files created in AutoCAD 2018 or 2019.

All Products

Feature:
A GeoStudio project can now contain analyses with full licenses as well as other analyses using basic licenses. For example, a full-featured SLOPE/W analysis can obtain pore-water pressures from a basic SEEP/W analysis in a single project.

Feature:
The new "Clone Branch" command will clone an analysis and all analyses beneath it.

Feature:
The new "Delete Branch" command will delete an analysis and all analyses beneath it.

Feature:
Sketch aligned dimensions (parallel to the object being dimensioned), linear dimensions (showing the horizontal or vertical dimensions of a slope), or angular dimensions.

Feature:
Dimensions connected to points will resize as points are moved.

Feature:
Orthogonal snapping: Holding the Shift key while drawing restricts cursor movement to the X or Y axes. Without the Shift key, lines that are nearly horizontal or vertical will snap to horizontal or vertical.

Feature:
The new Sketch Materials Table and Sketch Boundary Conditions Table commands quickly add a table of materials or boundary conditions to the drawing.

Feature:
Move text while sketching it (no need to use Modify Objects).

Feature:
Sketch Text and Modify Sketch Text have been combined. To edit existing text, use the Sketch Text command and click an existing text block.

Feature:
The Modify Sketch Objects command has been removed. Sketch objects can be edited in their respective Sketch commands. To edit the properties of a line, for example, use the Sketch Lines command and click an existing line.

Feature:
Improved memory consumption when contour results.

Feature:
Improved memory consumption viewing results.

Feature:
Improved performance of displaying vectors.

Feature:
Import files created in AutoCAD 2018 or 2019.

Feature:
Font sizes can be set independently for dimensions, axis numbers, and axis labels.

Feature:
Errors during the calculation of a spatial function will now be displayed in the Define Spatial Function dialog.

Feature:
A notification is now displayed on the start page if a license's maintenance will be expiring soon.

Feature:
Add-Ins can use functions defined in the project file.

Change:
It is no longer possible to change "units of computation" under the Project Properties. Instead, pick a template that uses the correct units when creating a new file. You can also use the View Units command to change which units are displayed.

Change:
In Define Functions, when changing the function type (such as from spline to step), properties in common between the two function types (such as the Cycle checkbox) will be carried over to the new function.

Change:
The Sketch Arrows and Sketch Double Arrows commands have been merged into the Sketch Lines command.

Change:
Moved the Define - Replace in Analyses command in the menu to group it with Define - Analyses.

Change:
Improvements were made to translations.

Bug fix:
A function imported from a .gsz file that uses different units of computation than the destination file ends up with incorrect values because units do not get converted.

Bug fix:
Licenses cannot be activated if the username includes certain non-Latin characters. This error is displayed: "No response from the server. Check that you have a network connection. (Error 514009)"

Bug fix:
Some error messages in Define Functions display incorrect values because they are being displayed using the wrong units.

Bug fix:
Using Match Scale on a Sketch Image using the mouse or typing in a value with units results in an error or invalid values.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when changing to an analysis using the Analysis Toolbar when no license is available.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio crashes when interacting with the menus or toolbars while some system dialogs (such as Open File) are displayed.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio will crash if the Reference Scale or Vertical Exaggeration values are deleted.

Bug fix:
Incorrect keyboard shortcuts in the File menu for the Most Recently Used files list.

Bug fix:
When opening a file created by GeoStudio 2016 or earlier, flow paths are removed, and an upgrade message indicates "There is no equivalent [feature] in the later version", which is incorrect.

Bug fix:
After selecting File Print, docked windows appear blank.

Bug fix:
Some functions do not get downgraded correctly when exporting as a GeoStudio 2016 file.

Bug fix:
Windows no longer resize properly after a Redo action changes the current analysis.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
The new user-defined reinforcement type provides a flexible option for modeling a wide range of structures with spatially variable shear resistance. A function is used to define the relationship between the force (capacity) and distance from the slope face to the intersection with the slip surface.

Feature:
Draw Graph can now plot minimum, mean, and ordinary Factor of Safety vs. probabilistic run number, as well as Factor of Safety standard deviation and probability of failure vs. probabilistic run number.

Feature:
Additional slip surface slice information was added to the report, including suction strength and the name of the material at the base of the slice.

Bug fix:
In Draw Slip Surface Grid, when creating a single line, the wrong edit boxes are disabled.

Bug fix:
For staged analyses, the shear resistance graph data for non-critical slip surface was incorrect. The persisted FOS was not being used by the on-demand calculator. This bug did not affect the computed FOS.

Bug fix:
The tension crack option in SLOPE/W could inadvertently remain active if the analysis type was changed to SIGMA/W or QUAKE/W Stress.

SEEP/W

Change:
The minimum suction used in the hydraulic property estimation routines was set equal to a specific minimum to ensure consistent model estimates. The “Fredlund-Xing” method was rightfully renamed “Fredlund-Xing-Huang”.

Change:
The general term “Beta” was renamed to “Compressibility” so that its meaning is more clear.

Bug fix:
For tension cracks, the "Filled with water" and "Unit weight of water" properties cannot be edited. This bug is a regression introduced in version 9.0.4.

Bug fix:
Peclet numbers for 1D transport analyses are incorrect if the domain is not horizontal.

GeoStudio 2018

History

• version 9.0.0 - September 26, 2017 - This is the initial release of GeoStudio 2018.

• version 9.0.1 - October 19, 2017 - This minor update to GeoStudio 2018 includes improvements to opening files created in previous versions, representation of Degree of Saturation, and numerous bug fixes.

• version 9.0.2 - November 9, 2017 - This update to GeoStudio 2018 addresses a critical issue where GeoStudio would become unresponsive when performing licensing operations. We strongly recommend upgrading to this version if your maintenance covers this release.

• version 9.0.3 - December 15, 2017 - This update to GeoStudio 2018 fixes a number of bugs.

• version 9.0.4 - January 24, 2018 - This update to GeoStudio 2018 adds n-factor boundary conditions, simplifies subdomain graphs, and fixes a number of bugs.

• version 9.0.5 - May 30, 2018 - This update fixes a few specific issues. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

Highlights

GeoStudio 2018 is a major new release of GeoStudio, introducing power and flexibility by combining multiple physical processes in a single analysis, among other improvements.

We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release, but because of the number of major changes between GeoStudio 2018 and GeoStudio 2016, we suggest you schedule some time to upgrade your older files. GeoStudio 2018 will install side-by-side with any other GeoStudio versions you already have installed.

The major new features include:

Improved multi-physics capabilities

• A new rigorous finite element solver used by SEEP/W, TEMP/W, AIR/W and CTRAN/W features new multi-physics capabilities and faster solve times.

• In a single analysis, ability to simultaneously compute and/or couple water transfer, air transfer, solute transfer, gas transfer, and heat transfer processes. Use the new Physics tab in the Define Analyses window to choose which physical processes to enable in the same analysis.

• Simulation of a broader range of engineering problems including climate effects on the ground surface, groundwater flow in freezing and thawing soils, and movement of solutes and gases in the subsurface.

• Boundary conditions can be used together to simulate coupled hydraulic and thermal responses of the ground profile to atmospheric conditions.

• Boundary condition data can be imported using the new Data Set feature. This allows for easy selection of data files containing field measurements (e.g., from weather stations), including column selection and unit conversion.

True 1D finite element analyses

• SEEP/W, TEMP/W, AIR/W and CTRAN/W now include true 1D modeling, which significantly speeds up 1D analyses that use many time steps.

• One-dimensional and two-dimensional analyses can share the same mesh and be run in the same project.

New Plan View definition

• Plan view now supports a variable aquifer thickness using spatial functions, allowing for new types of plan view problems to be analyzed.

Comprehensive unit conversion and support

• GeoStudio now offers considerable flexibility for selecting units for input and display.

• Default display units can be selected for individual or groups of parameters.

• When a value with units is entered for a parameter into any edit control, the number is converted to the selected units for the parameter.

Enhanced graphing capability

• Graphs can be set up and computed during solve time, allowing for rapid graph display.

• Results can be plotted within any subdomain, allowing for element-based parameters to be adjusted at nodes for plotting purposes. Subdomain plots can provide insight on flow through an internal node over time; consequently, flux sections are no longer required.

• Cumulative parameters are now accumulated during solve time, significantly speeding up graphing of these parameters.

• Data parameters have been reorganized in the dialog to make it easier to find the parameter to plot.

New 64-bit solvers

• Each solver in GeoStudio 2018 has new 64-bit processing support, enabling GeoStudio to now solve projects with many more analyses and denser meshes. The 64-bit solvers also offer improved performance when solving individual analyses or calling Add-In functions.

• Improved multi-threading support offers performance gains when solving many analyses simultaneously on modern CPUs.

• Solvers can now be stopped mid-computation and restarted without having to restart the analysis from the beginning.

Improved transient analyses

• Multiple options are now available for defining time increments in transient analyses; the time increment length or the number of time steps over the given period may be specified.

• Time-based mass, volume, and energy boundary conditions such as water rate, heat flux, and mass flux are now integrated across a time-step, ensuring perfect mass and energy conservation at the boundary and improving overall accuracy of the solution.

GeoStudio Basic now bundled with all products

• Purchasing a Full Feature license for any product will now provide access to a Basic license for all other GeoStudio products, allowing for greater product integration.

• For example, the owner of a full SLOPE/W license will now be able to complete a steady-state water transfer analysis using SEEP/W to define the spatial variability in pore water pressures.

New German language support

• The GeoStudio user interface can now be run in German.

• Previous language translations have been improved, including Spanish, French, Chinese, and Portuguese.

New engineering examples and books

• Additional examples are available representing a wider range of geotechnical and earth science problems.

• The engineering books have been updated to reflect the new features and functionality of GeoStudio 2018. The finite element flow products feature a new book called "Mass and Heat Transfer Modeling with GeoStudio".

Improved Add-In support

• Add-In functions can now be stateless, allowing for significant performance improvements during the solve process.

• Add-Ins can now be written using the latest versions of Microsoft Visual Studio (e.g., 2017).

• Add-Ins can be written as 32-bit or 64-bit. They now require .NET 4.0.

• The Add-In SDK document and examples have been updated to reflect the new features.

All Products

Feature:
Tabbed windows have been introduced into dialog boxes for boundary condition and material property definition to accommodate the new multiphysics architecture.

Feature:
The solver now stores 15 significant digits in result data files, resulting in increased accuracy when restarting analyses or comparing results.

Feature:
Finite element mesh quality and meshing performance has been improved. Meshes are now saved in binary files, allowing for faster reading and writing.

Feature:
Project files can now have a start date, allowing for data specified at specific elapsed times to be converted to actual dates. This is particularly important in climate modeling.

Feature:
The context menu for edit boxes includes a Set Units command to change the units displayed for that parameter.

Change:
The KeyIn menu has been renamed to Define; the Define view has been renamed to the Definition view.

Change:
Some data parameter names have been changed to be more consistent with scientific literature. Data files created by previous GeoStudio versions may contain older data parameter names; these names will be converted when opening the file in GeoStudio 2018.

Change:
GeoStudio product icons and logos have been updated.

Change:
Windows 7 SP1 or higher is now required to run GeoStudio.

Bug fix:
Many performance improvements and bug fixes have been made since GeoStudio 2016.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
Enhanced SHANSEP material model in SLOPE/W now includes the ability to specify a function for shear strength vs. vertical effective stress or to use the closed-form SHANSEP equation.

Feature:
For Eurocode or other partial factor analyses, the Factor of Safety is now displayed as the Over Design Factor. In addition, it is possible to display the Degree of Utilization with each slip surface.

TEMP/W

Change:
The thermosyphon and convective surface boundary conditions are now more rigorous and numerically stable.

CTRAN/W

Feature:
CTRAN/W can now be run as a stand-alone product with the new diffusion-only analysis type.

Feature:
Gas transfer physics are now available, enabling analysis of both dissolved solutes and free gases and their associated reaction processes. This capability enables new simulation capabilities, such as gas movement through an unsaturated mine cover or gas and solute transport through fractured rock.

AIR/W

Feature:
AIR/W has been completely re-formulated and can now be run as a stand-alone product for single phase air transfer using the new single phase material model.

Feature:
A new barometric pressure AIR/W boundary condition determines air pressure at the applied nodes based on the temperature and pressure at a reference elevation.

Feature:
Particle tracking is now available to evaluate the typical pathways for air movement in porous media.

VADOSE/W

Feature:
The previous VADOSE/W product functionality is significantly enhanced and is available as a new GeoStudio Vadose bundle comprised of SEEP/W, TEMP/W and CTRAN/W.

Change:
The new multi-physics analysis functionality eliminates the need for VADOSE/W as a stand-alone product. Existing VADOSE/W can be upgraded to the GeoStudio Vadose bundle.

9.0.1.15234

These additional changes were made in version 9.0.1.15234. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

All Products

Feature:
Opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio that contains Climate Data will not only convert the climate data to a Data Set, but will also create the necessary Climate Functions and maintain references to the boundary conditions.

Bug fix:
In some cases, time series may not be correctly upgraded when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio.

Bug fix:
Manually entered elapsed times in days are not being upgraded correctly when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio.

Bug fix:
In some cases, isoline contours are not upgraded properly when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio.

Bug fix:
Some Sketch Text created using Insert Field is not upgraded properly when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio.

Bug fix:
The Max Number of Iterations value may change when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio.

Bug fix:
The File Export as Previous Version command does not include the mesh in the file it creates.

Bug fix:
Corrected various other problems related to opening files created by a previous version of GeoStudio, or using the File Export As Previous Version.

Bug fix:
Occasionally some items on the printed output may not be positioned correctly.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio can become unresponsive when attempting to acquire a license.

Bug fix:
Deleting a material function that was still in use could cause GeoStudio to crash.

Bug fix:
Draw Graph could crash when selecting a custom range with a Default time option.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash while drawing graphs with many time steps in projects with many nested analyses.

Bug fix:
Adding an AutoCAD file as a sketch picture in model view would import the image twice.

9.0.2.15352

This update fixes a few specific issues. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

All Products

Bug fix:
Occasionally some items on the printed output may not be positioned
correctly.

Bug fix:
Moving a small object that is part of a much larger domain could cause the viewport to move.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio can become unresponsive when attempting to acquire a license.

Bug fix:
Some sketch text fields do not upgrade and appear as errors in GeoStudio 2018, when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio.

Change:
Exponential time steps are now rounded to seconds, minutes, hours, or days, depending on the size of the first step.

Bug fix:
In some cases, time step sequences are changed when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio.

Bug fix:
Some functions can not be accessed from the Define menu, only from the boundary condition or material in which they are used.

Bug fix:
The solver becomes unresponsive if an analysis name begins with a hyphen.

Bug fix:
Graph data copied to the clipboard always uses a . as the decimal character, ignoring the locale settings.

Bug fix:
Draw Graph's undo or redo commands do not always work when changing data parameters.

Bug fix:
The wrong title is used when copying the Critical Slip Surface graph to the clipboard.

Bug fix:
Contours displayed in Define view are not updated when different materials are assigned, or when editting points or regions through dialogs (rather than with the mouse).

Bug fix:
The ground surface line does not regenerate properly when changing a material's model to or from "(none)".

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash if the first line of sketch text is empty.

Bug fix:
Using "Save As" with the "excluding solution" option and saving with the same filename removes results but does not decrease the file size.

Bug fix:
On certain hardware, GeoStudio could crash while opening a file.

Bug fix:
Water tables may be included in reports even for analyses that do not involve a water table, such as a steady-state analysis.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash in Results View in complex geometry where a piezometric or pressure line runs almost parallel to but intersects the base of a slice.

Bug fix:
Clearing information in the Slip Surface Entry and Exit dialog without the Radius option set causes GeoStudio to crash.

Bug fix:
Partial factors defined in a Limited Equilibrium analysis may be inadvertently used in a Finite Element Stress analysis.

SEEP/W

Change:
More data is preserved in the Land Climate Interaction boundary condition when opening a file containing VADOSE/W Climate boundary conditions created with a previous version of GeoStudio, including calculated snow depth, estimated solar radiation, potential evapotranspiration, and latitude.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio, if the file contains analyses that are children of a coupled analysis (CTRAN/W Density-Dependent, or any AIR/W analysis).

Bug fix:
For boundary conditions that include a "surface perimeter" field, the "Specify Surface Perimeter" checkbox can only be cleared if the perimeter value is deleted first.

SIGMA/W

TEMP/W

Change:
More data is preserved in the Land Climate Interaction boundary condition when opening a file containing VADOSE/W Climate boundary conditions created with a previous version of GeoStudio, including calculated snow depth, estimated solar radiation, potential evapotranspiration, and latitude.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio, if the file contains analyses that are children of a coupled analysis (CTRAN/W Density-Dependent, or any AIR/W analysis).

Bug fix:
For boundary conditions that include a "surface perimeter" field, the "Specify Surface Perimeter" checkbox can only be cleared if the perimeter value is deleted first.

CTRAN/W

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio, if the file contains analyses that are children of a coupled analysis (CTRAN/W Density-Dependent, or any AIR/W analysis).

Bug fix:
For boundary conditions that include a "surface perimeter" field, the "Specify Surface Perimeter" checkbox can only be cleared if the perimeter value is deleted first.

AIR/W

Change:
More data is preserved in the Land Climate Interaction boundary condition when opening a file containing VADOSE/W Climate boundary conditions created with a previous version of GeoStudio, including calculated snow depth, estimated solar radiation, potential evapotranspiration, and latitude.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when opening a file created by a previous version of GeoStudio, if the file contains analyses that are children of a coupled analysis (CTRAN/W Density-Dependent, or any AIR/W analysis).

Bug fix:
For boundary conditions that include a "surface perimeter" field, the "Specify Surface Perimeter" checkbox can only be cleared if the perimeter value is deleted first.

9.0.3.15488

These additional changes were made in version 9.0.3.15488. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

All Products

Feature:
Added an indicator to the start page when working in limited feature license modes such as Basic, Student, or Viewer.

Change:
Translations have been improved based on feedback.

Bug fix:
The Del key deletes data points in functions even when the function uses a data set.

Bug fix:
A function's parameters can be changed even if a boundary condition is using it and thus expecting the previous parameters.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash in Define Functions when using a logarithmic scale.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash while processing a spatial function with many points.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio will crash if a Plan View Mesh Thickness spatial function is deleted while it's being used by an analysis.

Bug fix:
Moving region points with Draw Points may invalidate the region, causing the region to be lost upon saving and reloading the file.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio crashes in Modify Objects when a circular region is resized to have zero area.

Bug fix:
Changes to the Project Start Date are not undone with Undo/Redo.

Bug fix:
An incomplete feature was accidentally included in Define Analyses, which would cause GeoStudio to crash if it was used. This was a regression introduced in version 9.0.2.

Bug fix:
Velocity and acceleration vectors are not displayed even when selected in the Draw Vectors dialog. Only displacement vectors are displayed in the analysis.

Bug fix:
Draw Graph incorrectly shows water physics parameters for analyses that have no water physics as results.

Bug fix:
When assigning data points to a spline function, GeoStudio may become unresponsive after displaying the error "Unable to compute spline coefficients".

Bug fix:
View Result Information does not allow selection of Elements and Element Nodes in flow products.

Bug fix:
In some cases, rounding artifacts appear in the graph points list. For example, a value may be displayed as 4 in one place but as 3.99999 in another. This is most common when the display units are not the same as the units of computation.

Bug fix:
Contour legends do not export properly to DXF/DWG files: parts of the legend appear in the wrong location. The legend export has been temporarily removed until a proper resolution to the problem can be determined.

Bug fix:
A message on the start page incorrectly indicates a trial license has expired if the license mode is anything other than Full license.

Bug fix:
Analysis icons on the start page appear to be disabled in Basic mode even if a full license is available.

Bug fix:
In basic license mode, if only a full license is available, analyses cannot be created unless they are covered by that full license. The intended behavior is that if any full license is available, all analyses can be created while in basic license mode.

Bug fix:
The GeoStudio installer creates the add-in and template folders in the wrong directory.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
After typing in coordinates for a Slip Axis and then deleting the coordinates, the analysis can no longer be solved because of a verification error: "Not all points have been defined for the Slip Surface Axis. Finish defining the points or change the Slip Surface option."

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when viewing Factor of Safety Contours (for Grid and Radius) if the number of X and Y increments in the grid are different.

Bug fix:
In Define - Replace in Analyses, the Pore Water Pressure checkbox is disabled even when a water table is defined.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may display verification errors about the Staged Pseudo-static analysis option even when using an analysis type that does not include that property.

Bug fix:
Right-to-left analyses produced different results than left-to-right analyses for problems using Lowe-Karafiath or Corps of Engineers methods.

Bug fix:
No intersection lines in Lambda Convergence graphs.

SEEP/W

Feature:
More data is preserved in the Land Climate Interaction boundary condition when opening a file containing VADOSE/W Climate boundary conditions created with a previous version of GeoStudio, including calculated snow depth, estimated solar radiation, potential evapotranspiration, and latitude.

Change:
Potential Evapotranspiration, Solar Radiation, Thiesen, and some Air Pressure functions may not compute properly.

Change:
When upgrading a climate boundary condition (in a file created with a previous version of GeoStudio) to a Land Climate Interaction boundary condition, the potential evapotranspiration method will be set to Penman Wilson if no potential evapotranspiration data was defined in its Climate Data Set.

Change:
The general term “Beta” was renamed to “Compressibility” so that its meaning is more clear.

Bug fix:
Land Climate Interaction boundary conditions' snow density, snow daily melt depth, and snow conductivity have different default values depending on if the unit system is SI or U.S. Customary.

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
When defining boundary conditions, switch between a SEEP/W LCI boundary condition and a SIGMA/W Force/Displacement boundary condition, the Y-Type contols of the Force/Displacement would be unresponsive to mouse actions.

Bug fix:
Some results may be displayed as "NaN" when a region without materials assigned is used in a Load/Deformation analysis without any initial conditions.

TEMP/W

Feature:
More data is preserved in the Land Climate Interaction boundary condition when opening a file containing VADOSE/W Climate boundary conditions created with a previous version of GeoStudio, including calculated snow depth, estimated solar radiation, potential evapotranspiration, and latitude.

Change:
Potential Evapotranspiration, Solar Radiation, Thiesen, and some Air Pressure functions may not compute properly.

Change:
When upgrading a climate boundary condition (in a file created with a previous version of GeoStudio) to a Land Climate Interaction boundary condition, the potential evapotranspiration method will be set to Penman Wilson if no potential evapotranspiration data was defined in its Climate Data Set.

Bug fix:
Land Climate Interaction boundary conditions' snow density, snow daily melt depth, and snow conductivity have different default values depending on if the unit system is SI or U.S. Customary.

Bug fix:
When the thermal under-relaxation rate was set to its default value in a file created by an older version of GeoStudio, it would be missing when opened by the latest release.

CTRAN/W

Feature:
More data is preserved in the Land Climate Interaction boundary condition when opening a file containing VADOSE/W Climate boundary conditions created with a previous version of GeoStudio, including calculated snow depth, estimated solar radiation, potential evapotranspiration, and latitude.

Change:
Potential Evapotranspiration, Solar Radiation, Thiesen, and some Air Pressure functions may not compute properly.

Change:
When upgrading a climate boundary condition (in a file created with a previous version of GeoStudio) to a Land Climate Interaction boundary condition, the potential evapotranspiration method will be set to Penman Wilson if no potential evapotranspiration data was defined in its Climate Data Set.

Bug fix:
Land Climate Interaction boundary conditions' snow density, snow daily melt depth, and snow conductivity have different default values depending on if the unit system is SI or U.S. Customary.

AIR/W

Bug fix:
Potential Evapotranspiration, Solar Radiation, Thiesen, and some Air Pressure functions may not compute properly.

9.0.4.15639

This update to GeoStudio 2018 adds n-factor boundary conditions, simplifies subdomain graphs, and fixes a number of bugs.

All Products

Feature:
Errors during the calculation of a spatial function will now be displayed in the Define Spatial Function dialog.

Change:
It is no longer possible to change "units of computation" under the Project Properties. Instead, pick a template that uses the correct units when creating a new file. You can also use the View Units command to change which units are displayed.

Bug fix:
In some cases, when selecting an object in a list (such as in Define Materials), a property of the previous selection could unintentionally be assigned to the new one.

Bug fix:
Materials (and possibly other objects) can no longer be copied or pasted. This bug is a regression introduced in GeoStudio 2018 version 9.0.3.

Bug fix:
Certain printer drivers split an analysis across two pages even when Page Layout shows that it should fit on a single page.

Bug fix:
Contour legends do not export properly to DXF/DWG files: parts of the legend appear in the wrong location. The legend export has been temporarily removed until a proper resolution to the problem can be implemented.

Bug fix:
Analysis icons on the start page appear to be disabled in Basic mode even if a full license is available.

Bug fix:
A message on the start page incorrectly indicates a trial license has expired if the license mode is anything other than Full license.

Bug fix:
The parameter controls in Draw Contours and Draw Graph, and the Parent Analysis selection in Define Analyses, do not work properly: other properties should change but don't when a new value is selected. This bug is a regression introduced in GeoStudio 2018 version 9.0.3.

Bug fix:
In some cases the time ranges of nested analyses are incorrect.

Change:
Changes were made to various translations based on customer feedback.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
The factor of safety legend is not visible when a file is re-opened.

Bug fix:
View Preferences always uses the term "ODF" even when Degree of Utilization is selected as the Partial Factor Display option.

SEEP/W

Feature:
"Subdomain graphs" were introduced in GeoStudio 2018 as a replacement for "Flux Sections" in previous releases. A "Subdomain cross section" tool has now been added to the Set Locations mode in the Draw Graph command. A “subdomain cross section” is created by drawing a polyline on the domain. Elements intersected by the polyline form the subdomain. Nodes are automatically selected along the left side of the subdomain. The “subdomain cross section” tool makes it possible to quickly create “subdomain graphs” of the amount of heat or mass flowing past a section within the domain.

Feature:
When opening a file created by GeoStudio 2016 or earlier, Flux Sections will be converted to subdomain graphs.

Change:
Using View Result Information, the properties of a flow path have been changed: Average Speed has been replaced with Average Flux, and Travel Time has been removed for steady-state analyses.

Bug fix:
Flow Path lines cannot be drawn if no storage function has been defined.

Bug fix:
In a Land-Climate Interaction boundary conditions, Calculated Snow Depth functions are not calculated properly if the air or precipitation functions use the "Cycle" option.

TEMP/W

Feature:
The ground surface temperature can now be modeled directly using an n-factor boundary condition. The n-factor boundary condition uses a ratio of the ground surface and air freeze/thaw indexes to calculate the simulated ground surface temperature.

Change:
Using View Result Information, the properties of a flow path have been changed: Average Speed has been replaced with Average Flux, and Travel Time has been removed for steady-state analyses.

Bug fix:
Flow Path lines cannot be drawn if no storage function has been defined.

AIR/W

Change:
Using View Result Information, the properties of a flow path have been changed: Average Speed has been replaced with Average Flux, and Travel Time has been removed for steady-state analyses.

Bug fix:
Flow Path lines cannot be drawn if no storage function has been defined.

9.0.5.16316

This update fixes a few specific issues. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

All Products

Change:
Improvements were made to various translations based on customer feedback.

Change:
Online help content has been updated.

Bug fix:
Licenses cannot be activated if the username includes certain non-Latin characters. This error is displayed: "No response from the server. Check that you have a network connection. (Error 514009)"

Bug fix:
When typing units while changing values in Page Layout fields, the value may change.

Bug fix:
In some cases Draw Regions and Import Regions will produce incorrect regions when multiple overlapping regions are drawn or imported.

Bug fix:
A "syntax error" message is displayed when changing the source of the initial conditions of an analysis with a basic license.

Bug fix:
When opening a file created by GeoStudio 2016 or older, flux sections correctly get converted to graphs, but the upgrade log does not mention them.

Bug fix:
The duration of a steady-state analysis changes from 0 to 1 when opening a file created by GeoStudio 2016 or earlier.

Bug fix:
In Draw Graph, when selecting a subdomain, in some cases no nodes are selected.

Bug fix:
Windows no longer resize properly after a Redo action changes the current analysis.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
For staged analyses, the shear resistance graph data for non-critical slip surface is incorrect. This bug does not affect the computed FOS.

Bug fix:
In Define Analyses, on the Slip Surface tab, the "tension crack angle", "filled with water", and "unit weight of water" fields are blank. This bug was a regression introduced in version 9.0.4.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio crashes in Define Analyses when creating a new SLOPE/W Analysis - SIGMA/W Stress or QUAKE/W Stress or QUAKE/W Newmark Deformation, if the current analysis is a SLOPE/W analysis.

Bug fix:
When using partial factors and having the display format set to degree of utilization, slip surfaces with errors incorrectly show as 0.001 instead of E999 (for example).

Bug fix:
Data in the Draw Probability graphs may be incorrect when changing result times.

SEEP/W

Bug fix:
The solver crashes and reports the error "Failed Windows system service call to WriteFile(): The pipe is being closed" in the solve manager window in certain cases when a boundary condition has been assigned to a portion of the mesh that has only null elements (no material properties).

Bug fix:
A transient SEEP/W, TEMP/W, CTRAN/W or AIR/W analysis that acquires initial pore-water pressure conditions from a QUAKE/W or SIGMA/W analysis fails with an error message that the solver is unable to find the elemnode.csv file.

Bug fix:
Unable to graph custom parameters from Add-Ins.

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
A transient SEEP/W, TEMP/W, CTRAN/W or AIR/W analysis that acquires initial pore-water pressure conditions from a QUAKE/W or SIGMA/W analysis fails with an error message that the solver is unable to find the elemnode.csv file.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio crashes in Define Analyses when creating a new SLOPE/W Analysis - SIGMA/W Stress or QUAKE/W Stress or QUAKE/W Newmark Deformation, if the current analysis is a SLOPE/W analysis.

QUAKE/W

Bug fix:
A transient SEEP/W, TEMP/W, CTRAN/W or AIR/W analysis that acquires initial pore-water pressure conditions from a QUAKE/W or SIGMA/W analysis fails with an error message that the solver is unable to find the elemnode.csv file.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio crashes in Define Analyses when creating a new SLOPE/W Analysis - SIGMA/W Stress or QUAKE/W Stress or QUAKE/W Newmark Deformation, if the current analysis is a SLOPE/W analysis.

TEMP/W

Bug fix:
The solver crashes and reports the error "Failed Windows system service call to WriteFile(): The pipe is being closed" in the solve manager window in certain cases when a boundary condition has been assigned to a portion of the mesh that has only null elements (no material properties).

Bug fix:
A transient SEEP/W, TEMP/W, CTRAN/W or AIR/W analysis that acquires initial pore-water pressure conditions from a QUAKE/W or SIGMA/W analysis fails with an error message that the solver is unable to find the elemnode.csv file.

Bug fix:
Unable to graph custom parameters from Add-Ins.

CTRAN/W

Bug fix:
The solver crashes and reports the error "Failed Windows system service call to WriteFile(): The pipe is being closed" in the solve manager window in certain cases when a boundary condition has been assigned to a portion of the mesh that has only null elements (no material properties).

Bug fix:
A transient SEEP/W, TEMP/W, CTRAN/W or AIR/W analysis that acquires initial pore-water pressure conditions from a QUAKE/W or SIGMA/W analysis fails with an error message that the solver is unable to find the elemnode.csv file.

Bug fix:
Unable to graph custom parameters from Add-Ins.

AIR/W

Bug fix:
A transient SEEP/W, TEMP/W, CTRAN/W or AIR/W analysis that acquires initial pore-water pressure conditions from a QUAKE/W or SIGMA/W analysis fails with an error message that the solver is unable to find the elemnode.csv file.

Bug fix:
Air rate boundary conditions link to Air Mass Rate vs. Time functions. They should instead link to Air Rate vs. Time functions.

GeoStudio 2016

History

• version 8.16.0 - September 8, 2016 - This is the initial release of GeoStudio 2016.

• version 8.16.1 - October 21, 2016 - This minor update to GeoStudio 2016 improves Print Preview, Page Layout, and includes a number of bug fixes.

• version 8.16.2 - March 2, 2017 - This update to GeoStudio 2016 improves Sketch Text, DXF/DWG export, and includes a number of bug fixes.

• version 8.16.3 - June 6, 2017 - This minor update to GeoStudio 2016 improves licensing with USB dongles among other bug fixes. Please note that this release requires the latest network license server (geoslope-lmadmin version 9.0.0 or later), and that it drops support for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Details are below.

• version 8.16.4 - July 25, 2017 - This minor update to GeoStudio 2016 restores licensing functionality when using legacy USB dongles and includes a bug fix to the SLOPE/W solver.

• version 8.16.5 - November 13, 2017 - This update to GeoStudio 2016 addresses a critical issue where GeoStudio would become unresponsive when performing licensing operations. We strongly recommend upgrading to this version if your maintenance covers this release.

Highlights

GeoStudio 2016 is an easy upgrade from GeoStudio 2012. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release. (Maintenance is required through August 2016.)

Feature:
Hit Apply or OK to replace the objects. All objects of that type in the target analyses will be deleted, then replaced with copies of all objects from the current analysis.

Feature:
A status column shows if the replacement was successful, and if it failed, also shows the reason for the failure.

Material Property Table

Material property tables can be added to a drawing using Sketch Text - Insert field - Materials - Show as a table. Previously the "table" was quite simple, and columns frequently did not line up properly.

Feature:
Column alignment has been fixed.

Feature:
Rows and columns are outlined and given a background color.

Feature:
Word wrapping keeps columns from getting too wide.

Feature:
Material color is displayed in its own column.

Modify Sketch Properties

Feature:
The Modify Sketch Text command has been expanded to all sketch objects, renamed to Modify Sketch Properties, and moved to the Modify menu.

Feature:
Depending on the object, you can change its color, line thickness, arrowheads, position, etc.

Feature:
Change the "Show in" option to display the object in all analyses or only in the current analysis.

Start Page

Feature:
Redesigned the Start Page.

Feature:
Select a template from a dropdown list on the Start Page, then click a product name, to create a new file from that template.

Feature:
Simplified the File New dialog.

Import and export

Feature:
When exporting an analysis to DXF or DWG, the font specified in View Preferences will be used for all exported text.

Bug fix:
Importing a DXF or DWG as a background sketch image will scale improperly in some cases. This typically occurs when the imported file included text.

Bug fix:
The presence of 3D polylines in a DXF or DWG file could potentially result in the imported image being positioned incorrectly (when using Sketch Pictures).

Bug fix:
Imported DWG/DXF images are incorrectly scaled when the viewport(s) are not maximized.

Bug fix:
In some cases exporting to WMF does not work properly.

Other changes:

Feature:
Translated to Brazilian Portuguese.

Feature:
Display the number of days remaining for a trial license.

Feature:
In the Solve Manager, right-click in the list of analyses to quickly select all analyses, parent analyses, child analyses, etc.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when switching from Define to Results while typing something into the Grid edit box in the status bar.

Bug fix:
In some cases if a file is saved while a dialog box is displayed (such as KeyIn Materials), GeoStudio could crash.

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio will fail to add sections for spatial functions or partial factor records to a report.

Bug fix:
The unit system on the start page when a file is open always displays S.I. even when Imperial units were actually selected in Set Units and Scale.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
The verification error message when lines overlap has been made more descriptive (includes the point numbers) to make it easier to identify which lines are overlapping.

Change:
In KeyIn Materials, for the S=f(overburden) material model, the "Minimum Strength" field was moved from the Advanced tab to the Basic tab.

Bug fix:
In some cases the solver displays the error “Slip surface calculation error … Cohesive Strength has a value of None” when solving analyses using the S=f(overburden) material model, because the minimum strength associated with the material was ignored. This bug was introduced in the May 2012 Release (version 8.0.4).

Bug fix:
The solver can compute incorrect results when slip surfaces intersect bedrock layers at the ground surface. Intersecting bedrock can truncate the slip surface, but the interslice function was using the original slip surface extents in its calculations. This could result in incorrect results when using the Morgenstern-Price half sine, clipped sine, trapezoidal, or fully specified side functions.

Bug fix:
In rare cases View Slice Information can display “Phi Angle”, “C (Strength)” and “Anisotropic Strength Mod.” values from a slice other than the one selected. This problem only occurs for the critical slip surfaces (e.g., the optimized slip surface).

TEMP/W

Bug fix:
In the Johansen (1975) estimation method for thermal conductivity as a function of volumetric water content, the thermal conductivity was being over-estimated at all water contents to prevent the calculation of negative values at low water contents.

VADOSE/W

Bug fix:
In the Johansen (1975) estimation method for thermal conductivity as a function of volumetric water content, the thermal conductivity was being over-estimated at all water contents to prevent the calculation of negative values at low water contents.

8.16.1.13452

These additional changes were made in version 8.16.1.13452. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

All Products

Change:
The Print Preview image has been improved.

Change:
If objects are drawn outside the borders of the page in Page Layout, Zoom Objects will now include them.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash if the mouse was over the status bar when a file was closed.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when switching to Page Layout view.

Bug fix:
In Page Layout view, incorrect time units were shown behind analysis names in the analysis tree accessible from the toolbar.

Bug fix:
While in Page Layout, exporting to DXF or DWG can take a very long time, as long as several minutes, during which time GeoStudio is unresponsive.

Bug fix:
When exporting to DXF or DWG, legend text may have a height of zero, making it appear to be missing. This bug was introduced in version 8.16.0.

Bug fix:
The message on the status bar that is supposed to give instructions about the current mode does not always get updated correctly.

Bug fix:
Immediately after opening a new file, the Go To command in the status bar is disabled.

Bug fix:
Occasionally no page is displayed the first time an analysis is displayed in Page Layout.

Bug fix:
In some cases when a dialog box is displayed, the Undo command can cause GeoStudio to crash.

Bug fix:
Occasionally when using Split Region, new regions may not have a material association.

Bug fix:
Values in the Set Grid dialog box are incorrect in Page Layout.

Bug fix:
Limits were added to zoom and scale values to avoid the potential of crashing GeoStudio from extreme values.

Bug fix:
Some toolbars or docking windows are available in Define when they shouldn't be.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
Materials using the Undrained model were displayed (in View Object Information, reports, or material tables) with an effective cohesion (Cohesion') instead of total cohesion.

Bug fix:
Occasionally the Slip Surfaces window is not displayed correctly when it is resized.

Bug fix:
The safety map does not get repositioned when the reference scale changes.

8.16.2.14053

These additional changes were made in version 8.16.2.14053. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

All Products

Change:
The material table displayed through Sketch Text - Insert Field is now sorted alphabetically by the material name.

Bug fix:
When exporting to a DXF or DWG, some elements may not be exported, and in some cases the resulting file may not be valid unless the Sketch Pictures view preference is turned off. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.16.0.

Bug fix:
After exporting a file as a previous version (using the File - Export to Previous Version command), some warnings still appear when opening the exported file with an older GeoStudio version. The warnings can be safely ignored--and will go away after the file has been saved again--but should not have appeared in the first place. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

Bug fix:
When solving a large number of analyses that are deeply nested in the tree view, GeoStudio could appear to hang for a long time and eventually could crash.

Bug fix:
Ponded water and safety maps may be displayed incorrectly after changing the reference scale.

Bug fix:
In some cases, certain lines (such as reinforcement lines) or other symbols may be printed with a very thick line.

Bug fix:
Occasionally sketch text word-wraps differently when printed than it does on screen.

Bug fix:
The ampersand character is not displayed correctly in sketch text.

Bug fix:
Boundary function types that were only intended to be in the Preview have been removed: Pressure Head vs. Time, Air Head vs. Time, Air Flux vs. Time, and Air Unit Flux vs. Time.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
The KeyIn Replace in Analyses command does not copy all Entry and Exit properties. Radius increments and projection angles are missed.

Bug fix:
Cohesion, Phi and Anisotropic Strength Modifier may be unavailable in Slope Results for certain geometries with a large number of slices.

8.16.3.14580

These additional changes were made in version 8.16.3.14580 . We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

All Products

Change:
USB dongles will now work with the latest drivers installed by Windows Update. If you are using GeoStudio network licenses, this change requires that you also update your network license server (geoslope-lmadmin) to the latest version available on the GEO-SLOPE web site.

Change:
Some system requirements have changed with this release: Windows XP and Windows Vista are no longer supported.

Feature:
Added a "Show Origin Axis" option in the Set Grid dialog.

Bug fix:
The Edit - Copy command does not work properly except in Page Layout.

Bug fix:
File Export and View Movie generate blank images.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio does not open a SLOPE/W version 5 file if the soil lines were not defined properly. This was a regression introduced in version 8.13.

Bug fix:
The solver becomes unresponsive if an analysis name begins with a hyphen.

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio could crash when saving a file for the first time after upgrading the file from version 5.

Bug fix:
Occasionally zooming will not work reliably when an extraneous object has been placed far away from the rest of the geometry. This was a regression introduced in 8.16.0.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
The Staged Rapid Drawdown and Staged Pseudo-static analyses continued to later stages even after failing to converge in a previous stage. Only errors from the final stage were reported.

Bug fix:
Probability and sensitivity parameters do not properly upgrade to v8.

8.16.3.15721

We strongly urge all users to stop running the previous release, version 8.16.3.14580, as its performance can degrade over time until eventually it becomes unresponsive while opening a file. Please upgrade to 8.16.3.15721 or newer.

All Products

Bug fix:
GeoStudio can become unresponsive when attempting to acquire a license.

8.16.4.14710

These additional changes were made in version 8.16.4. We recommend upgrading if you experience any of the bugs listed.

All Products

Bug fix:
Some older USB dongles were no longer detected after the 8.16.3 update.

8.16.4.15721

We strongly urge all users to stop running the previous release, version 8.16.3.14580, as its performance can degrade over time until eventually it becomes unresponsive while opening a file. Please upgrade to 8.16.3.15721 or newer.

All Products

Bug fix:
GeoStudio can become unresponsive when attempting to acquire a license.

8.16.5.15361

These additional changes were made in version 8.16.5. We recommend upgrading if you experience any of the bugs listed.

All Products

Bug fix:
GeoStudio can become unresponsive when attempting to acquire a license.

Bug fix:
Opening an AutoCAD file could cause GeoStudio to crash if the AutoCAD file version is not supported by GeoStudio.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash in Results View in complex geometry where a piezometric or pressure line runs almost parallel to but intersects the base of a slice.

Change:
Graph point locations on the edge of the geometry can produce results now.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
Cohesion, Phi and Anisotropic Strength Modifier values may be unavailable in Results view when there is a vertical segment in the slip surface.

Bug fix:
Partial factors defined in a Limited Equilibrium analysis may be inadvertently used in a Finite Element Stress analysis.

Bug fix:
Some parameters in View Slice Information for stored slip surfaces may be missing.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio crashes in Results View when displaying FOS sketch text in an analysis with no valid slip surfaces.

• Draw regions that overlap with existing regions, and they will be automatically merged.

• Draw new floating polygon regions that can be moved over domain regions.

• Import regions from AutoCAD DWG files or GeoStudio files.

Improvements working with materials:

• Apply materials across all analyses at once.

• Add a material legend that displays material colors.

Other changes:

• Use the keyboard while drawing objects to enter exact coordinates, lengths, or angles. Drawing with the mouse now displays angles and lengths while you draw.

• Add dimension lines to a drawing using Sketch Dimensions.

• Remote Desktop is supported for all license types.

• GeoStudio is officially supported on Windows 10.

GeoStudio Preview

The GeoStudio Preview is a preview of the next major release of GeoStudio. It is installed along with GeoStudio 2012 to allow you to try it out with your models and provide us with early feedback if you wish.

The fourth release of the Preview includes a new Gas Transfer formulation in CTRAN/W and Vapor Transfer in SEEP/W, along with additional multi-physics capabiliites. Support has also been added for SLOPE/W, SIGMA/W, and QUAKE/W analyses.

All Products

Feature:
Regions and pictures can now be imported from AutoCAD DWG files, not just DXF.

Feature:
GeoStudio can now import region geometry from other GeoStudio files (.gsz or .xml), or from third-party applications that export to GeoStudio's file format.

Feature:
Adjacent regions can now be merged using the Draw Merge Regions command.

Feature:
Regions can now be split into smaller regions using the Draw Split Regions command.

Feature:
Draw Regions will now merge a new region with any overlapping regions, rather than displaying an error. Draw Regions will now only snap along an existing region boundary while the Ctrl key is pressed.

Feature:
Materials can be applied to all analyses at once with the new "Apply to All Analyses" option in Draw Materials and Draw Surface Materials.

Feature:
Materials and functions can be copied to the clipboard from KeyIn Materials and the various KeyIn Functions, then pasted into another document. When a material is copied, all the functions it uses are copied as well.

Feature:
Materials can be applied to all analyses at once with the new "Apply to All Analyses" option in Draw Materials and Draw Surface Materials.

Feature:
Key In Regions now has an additional column in the list of regions which shows the specific type of region.
Key In Points now indicates the distinction between unpinned domain points and points that are associated with floating regions.

Feature:
Zooming is more responsive, especially in larger projects.

Feature:
GeoStudio will be more responsive when tabbing through items without making changes.

Feature:
In Draw Graph, the tooltip can be displayed or hidden using a context menu.

Feature:
The View Object Information dialog will now remain open while switching analyses.

Feature:
The View Result Information dialog will now remain open while switching analyses.

Feature:
The View Slice Information and View Slide Mass dialogs will now remain open while switching analyses.

Feature:
GeoStudio is officially supported on Windows 10

Change:
When importing regions from a DXF or DWG file, an error message will be displayed if the source file contains regions on multiple planes.

Change:
A new "Viewing Results" section has been added to the Online Help.

Bug fix:
In KeyIn Analyses, when trying to change only the case of letters in an analysis name, an error would be displayed about duplicate analysis names.

Bug fix:
When a file with no regions was exported as a GeoStudio 2007 file, GeoStudio 2007 would display an error about some unexpected tags.

Bug fix:
If Draw Materials is started in a finite element analysis and the "Lines" option is selected, then a Slope analysis is activated, the Draw Materials dialog should switch back to the "Regions" option.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash in Results view if no results are available.

Bug fix:
In View Result Information, selecting nodes by dragging a rectangle could sometimes be extremely slow.

Bug fix:
In some cases, opening a file created by GeoStudio 2004 (version 6) would end up creating several boundary conditions and contours with identical names.

Bug fix:
Hitting "Esc" in the "Set Locations" mode of KeyIn Spatial Functions would exit the KeyIn Spatial Functions mode entirely rather than just exiting the Set Locations mode and reverting to the main dialog.

Bug fix:
Text on toolbar buttons was not always displayed in the correct language.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when defining a Convective Surface Fluid temperature function. (This was a regression introduced in 8.13.0.)

Bug fix:
Imported WMF pictures were not displayed properly. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

Bug fix:
In some cases the Solve Manager window could incorrectly report that an analysis had "Results out of date" even immediately after solving it.

Bug fix:
Downgrade reports created by GeoCmd were empty.

Bug fix:
With the "Mesh" View Preference turned on, drawing a material on a region which previously did not have a material, the mesh would not be displayed in that region. The problem could be worked around using View - Redraw, manually regenerating the mesh using Draw - Mesh Properties, saving the file, or solving. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

Bug fix:
An AddIn's time parameters (such as eElaspedTime) could be incorrect if many analyses with different analysis kinds (SEEP/W, SLOPE/W, etc) are solved simultaneously.

Bug fix:
Child analysis of a Convective or Density Dependent analysis fails to solve with error, "Cannot read the results file required to solve this analysis. File not found: ..."

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when opening a file containing non-latin characters on a computer with a different locale setting. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

Bug fix:
In some cases a .GszXmlBackup file was not generated. This is a temporary backup file generated while the .gsz is being modified, in case the .gsz gets corrupted.

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio did not allow modification of surface regions using Modify Objects or Draw Surface Layers. The error "Unable to generate surface region and regions above it" was displayed. This was a regression introduced in version 8.14.
In some cases GeoStudio would crash while attempting to mesh surface regions.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
SLOPE/W now includes full support for Partial Factor analysis, including limit state design approaches such as Eurocode 7 and British Standard 8006. Read the engineering manual "Stability Modeling with SLOPE/W" for details.

Feature:
SLOPE/W now includes new slip surface inspection and visualization options. Use the new Draw Slip Surface Color Map command to display slip surfaces, contours, and the safety map using the same color ranges.

Feature:
Display all potential slip surfaces at once, color-coded according to their factor of safety.

Feature:
The Slip Surfaces docking window now allows you to filter the list of slip surfaces to a specific range.

Feature:
Select a slip surface in Results view by clicking points of the slip surface definition (such as a center point, or an entry or exit point). The most critical slip surface associated with that definition will be selected.

Feature:
Get fisual feedback about slip surfaces while graphically selecting them, including a tooltip showing factor of safety and a graphical representation showing the slip surface center and radius lines.

Feature:
More control over view preferences in Results view: choose whether to display the current slip surface (includes the slip surface line itself, shading, slices, and factor of safety label); choose whether to display the critical slip surface above all others; and choose whether to display the slip surface definition objects.

Feature:
Reinforcement in the passive zone is now applied if the resulting reinforcement load is acting in a direction causing the slope to give a higher factor of safety.

Feature:
Reinforcement properties can now be included in probabilistic and sensitivity analyses.

Feature:
Newmark analyses now display KMax - the maximum average acceleration from the side of the acceleration record with the largest area above (or below) the yield acceleration. Such analyses may return improved velocity and displacement values in some rare cases.

Feature:
The Slip Surfaces docking window allows you to choose what to do with the "current" slip surface when you change analyses: either keep the same slip surface number selected, or switch to the critical slip surface of the new analysis.

Feature:
The Slip Surfaces docking window allows you to type a slip surface number to select it.

Feature:
The Slip Surfaces docking window is now more responsive when displaying a large number of slip surfaces.

Change:
Water surcharge now is excluded in the pore-water pressure calculations using B-bar/Ru coefficients

Change:
Speed improvements were made to Results View for analyses with a large number of slip surfaces.

Change:
Many SLOPE/W example files have been updated.

Bug fix:
Under some rare circumstances, the SLOPE/W solver could stop responding (hang).

Bug fix:
Graphs displayed using Draw Sensitivity or Draw Probability did not update when the current slip surface changed.

Bug fix:
Graphs displayed using Draw Graph did not update when the current slip surface changed.

Bug fix:
The default unit weight of water assigned to a tension crack was incorrect when using imperial units.

Bug fix:
It was not possible to add new Lambda Values when the list of Lambda Values for the Linear Search method was empty.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when viewing results from a GeoStudio 2007 file. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

Bug fix:
Creating a single grid point does not create an undo/redo item.

Bug fix:
In some cases for a Monte-Carlo analysis, when Cohesion and Phi are both specified in Set Probabilistic Parameters and a C-Phi correlation coefficient is specified, results may be incorrect.

Bug fix:
In rare scenarios GeoStudio is unable to read results generated by a sensitivity analysis.

Bug fix:
Some shallow slip surfaces may not be generated.

Bug fix:
When editing some of the SLOPE/W lines using the KeyIn commands, the points on the line were not always displayed in sorted order. This bug specifically affected piezometric lines, fully specified slip surfaces, surcharge lines and tension crack lines.

Bug fix:
View Object Information did not display any information about the axis of rotation.

Bug fix:
In Draw Graph in a sensitivity analysis, the Run combo box was not displaying properly when multiple modifiers were being used.

SEEP/W

Change:
The Plan View analysis in SEEP/W ensured that the saturated conductivity of a K-function was used even if the pore-water pressure was negative. Although the restriction is theoretically correct, it prevented an add-in material model from receiving the actual solved pore-water pressure when it was negative. The restriction was removed because the Saturated Only model can be used in place of the Saturated-Unsaturated material model to ensure the saturated conductivity is used in the Plan View analysis.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could potentially crash after a flux section was selected.

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
In some cases for axisymmetric analyses with a central angle of 360 degrees, the verification error "Neither force nor displacement has been applied in this analysis" would be reported incorrectly.

TEMP/W

Bug fix:
Climate data import did not work. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could potentially crash after a flux section was selected.

CTRAN/W

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could potentially crash after a flux section was selected.

AIR/W

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could potentially crash after a flux section was selected.

VADOSE/W

Bug fix:
Climate data import did not work. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could potentially crash after a flux section was selected.

8.15.1.11236

These additional changes were made in version 8.15.1.11236

All Products

Bug fix:
Unable to run license maintenance check while upgrading to 8.15.

Bug fix:
Upgrading from 8.14 to 8.15 loses all non-English languages.

8.15.2.11331

These additional changes were made in version 8.15.2.11331

All Products

Feature:
When typing coordinates in the status bar while in a draw mode, you can now specify a relative point with an angle and an X or Y offset. For example: @x10<30 will move 10 units to the right and up 30 degrees.

Change:
Minor performance and stability improvements.

Change:
Improved meshing reliability.

Bug fix:
Floating regions could not always be selected using Modify Objects. In some cases the domain region below it would be selected instead.

Bug fix:
Merge Regions may not merge two adjacent regions properly.

Bug fix:
In Draw Mesh Properties, the mesh is not updated after clicking “Remove Constraints”. You can force the mesh to update by applying other constraints or modifying the geometry. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.14.

Bug fix:
In some cases a solver may fail while attempting to reference initial conditions from a steady state analysis, and display an “Invalid time step” error.

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio may crash while editing initial conditions in KeyIn Analyses.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when clicking "Copy" in View Result Information. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

Bug fix:
In View Result Information, dragging a rectangle could select the wrong gauss points.

Bug fix:
View Result Information is now faster when selecting a large number of nodes.

Bug fix:
Some parts of the software always appeared in English, even if the rest was displayed in a different language. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

Bug fix:
A few issues were fixed related to translations in various languages.

Bug fix:
A DWG or DXF imported as a Sketch Image would hide any other images behind it. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

Bug fix:
File Export incorrectly listed AutoCAD DWG files as an option for exporting. Currently the only AutoCAD file type supported for exporting is DXF.

Bug fix:
In some cases, especially with very small regions, importing regions from DXF may cause GeoStudio to crash.

Bug fix:
When using licenses tied to multiple USB dongles with 64-bit Windows, GeoStudio was only able to detect one of the USB dongles. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0. With this new release, all USB dongles will be detected by default, but in order to run GeoStudio from a remote desktop you must go to Help - License Management - Local Settings, and check the "Use 64-bit Licensing" checkbox. Due to a constraint in the underlying licensing software, 64 bit licensing will only detect a single USB dongle at a time.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
Not all probabilistic graphs could be viewed. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

Bug fix:
Contours were not always updated when changing the time step while in Results View.

Bug fix:
When exiting the Draw Entry and Exit mode by right-clicking, the mouse cursor would not be reset.

Bug fix:
In View Slice Information, using the keyboard's arrow keys after a mouse click was not changing the selected slice. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash if a SLOPE/W analysis is solved while in the Select Slip Surface mode.

Bug fix:
In some cases the Slip Surfaces window may not display properly the first time GeoStudio is run, or after using Window - Reset Window Layout. Closing and re-running GeoStudio will normally solve the problem.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when viewing results of a sensitivity analysis. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
In KeyIn Analyses, when getting initial conditions from a parent and that parent is a SIGMA/W Coupled Consolidation analysis, it was not possible to select "(all)" as the time steps.

8.15.3.11339

These additional changes were made in version 8.15.3.11339

All Products

Bug fix:
GeoStudio is unable to use Activated licenses on 64-bit Windows. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.2.

8.15.4.11512

These additional changes were made in version 8.15.4.11512

All Products

Improved application stability working with the geometry in GeoStudio. Problems fixed with this change include:

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may incorrectly display the error message "Unable to use results from file. The mesh is incompatible with this file" when attempting to load results from another analysis, even though the other analysis was solved using the same mesh.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when modifying region geometry.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when saving a file.

Bug fix:
In some cases, especially with very small regions, importing regions from DXF may cause GeoStudio to crash.

These bugs were also fixed:

Bug fix:
The Student and Basic Editions may incorrectly indicate there are too many regions, and prevent the file from being saved.

Bug fix:
Combo boxes in a toolbar (such as the Contour combo box) may not accurately indicate what is currently selected.

Bug fix:
When an analysis was exported to DXF format, legends in the exported drawing appeared as solid white rectangles.

Bug fix:
Some changes made in Set Units and Scale that affect the mesh (such as changing the Central Angle for an axisymmetric analysis) would not be applied to the mesh until the next time the mesh was regenerated (such as by making a change to the geometry). This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

Bug fix:
In File - Import as Regions, in some cases when importing from DWG/DXF an incorrect scale factor was suggested.

Bug fix:
Material assignments on a line were not preserved when the line was split.

Bug fix:
There was a problem with the DWG/DXF importing where in some cases an incorrect scale factor was suggested. This has now been fixed so the suggested scale more accurately represents the contents of the DWG/DXF file.

Bug fix:
Material assignments on a line were not preserved when the line was split.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
The Slip Surfaces window may display incorrect left and right angles for the optimized slip surface.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when switching to Define view while in Select Slip Surface mode.

Bug fix:
Contour labels on the grid of centers (when contouring factor of safety) were not displayed with the user-defined number of significant digits.

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
The starting time and duration may be incorrect for analyses whose type is "SIGMA/W Stress", "QUAKE/W Stress", or "QUAKE/W Newmark Deformation". This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio crashes when in Results view for a SIGMA/W analysis that has not been solved. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.14.

QUAKE/W

Bug fix:
The starting time and duration may be incorrect for analyses whose type is "SIGMA/W Stress", "QUAKE/W Stress", or "QUAKE/W Newmark Deformation". This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.15.0.

8.15.5.11777

These additional changes were made in version 8.15.5.11777. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

All Products

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio would not release unused space at the end of a .Gsz file. This caused .Gsz files to be larger than necessary.

Bug fix:
The Solve Manager may report 'Results out of date' when in fact nothing has changed.

Bug fix:
When printing, the Fit to Page button did not properly scale the image to a single page.

Bug fix:
Importing a DXF or DWG as a background sketch image would scale improperly in some occasions and wouldn't overlap the region geometry. This typically occurred when text was present in the DXF or DWG.

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio could become unresponsive (hang) while importing regions using File - Import Regions.

Bug fix:
Drawing a region on top of another region can sometimes cause errors in Verify.

Bug fix:
Split Regions could fail in some valid cases.

Bug fix:
In some cases where the Structured Grid mesh patterns are used GeoStudio could crash if the mesh is over constrained.

Bug fix:
Trying to split a region with a mesh type of 'Rectangular grid of Quads' or 'Triangular grid of Quads / triangles' could fail.

Bug fix:
When an analysis gets initial conditions from a specific time step of its parent, and the parent is changed so it has only a single time step, the child analysis would have an invalid time step selected but the Time combo box would disappear so there was no obvious way to correct the mistake.

Bug fix:
In Draw Graph, the 'Select Time Steps' field might switch to 'Custom' unexpectedly.

Bug fix:
In some cases, results did not load correctly when opening files solved by GeoStudio 2007 or earlier.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may incorrectly display the error message 'Unable to use results from file. The mesh is incompatible with this file' when attempting to load results from another analysis, even though the other analysis was solved using the same mesh.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when saving a file.

8.15.6.13446

These additional changes were made in version 8.15.6.13446. We recommend upgrading for everyone whose maintenance covers this release.

All Products

Bug fix:
Importing a DXF or DWG as a background sketch image would scale improperly in some cases. This typically occurred when the imported file included text.

Bug fix:
The presence of 3D polylines in a DXF or DWG file could potentially result in the imported image being positioned incorrectly (when using Sketch Pictures).

Bug fix:
Imported DWG/DXF images were incorrectly scaled when the viewport(s) were not maximized.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when switching from Define to Results while typing something into the Grid edit box in the status bar.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
The verification error message when lines overlap has been made more descriptive (includes the point numbers) to make it easier to identify which lines are overlapping.

Bug fix:
In some cases the solver displays the error “Slip surface calculation error … Cohesive Strength has a value of None” when solving analyses using the S=f(overburden) material model, because the minimum strength associated with the material was ignored. This bug was introduced in the May 2012 Release (version 8.0.4).

Bug fix:
The solver can compute incorrect results when slip surfaces intersect bedrock layers at the ground surface. Intersecting bedrock can truncate the slip surface, but the interslice function was using the original slip surface extents in its calculations. This could result in incorrect results when using the Morgenstern-Price half sine, clipped sine, trapezoidal, or fully specified side functions.

Bug fix:
In rare cases View Slice Information can display “Phi Angle”, “C (Strength)” and “Anisotropic Strength Mod.” values from a slice other than the one selected. This problem only occurs for the critical slip surfaces (e.g., the optimized slip surface).

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio will fail to add sections for spatial functions or partial factor records to a report.

Workflow improvements - It is easier to switch between analyses or time steps without losing your train of thought, as many dialogs (such as Draw Graph) will now stay active as you make changes outside of them.

New languages - GeoStudio is now available in French; the Spanish translation has been improved; and Simplified Chinese is available as well. Select your language when installing GeoStudio or change it later using Edit Options.

GeoStudio Preview

The GeoStudio Preview is a preview of the next major release of GeoStudio. It is installed along with GeoStudio 2012 to allow you to try it out with your models and provide us with early feedback if you wish.

The third release of the Preview expands the functionality of GeoStudio, improves the robustness of the engineering solvers, and includes a number of user-interface enhancements to improve workflow. The highlights include:

• Redeveloped AIR/W and CTRAN/W finite element products

• A single phase air transfer analysis in AIR/W

• A diffusion-only analysis in CTRAN/W

• A new SEEP/W formulation for modeling density-driven groundwater flow due to spatial variations in temperature

• A more rigorous formulation in SEEP/W for modeling density-driven groundwater flow due to spatial variations in concentration

• A more rigorous formulation in TEMP/W for modeling forced heat convection with flowing air and water

All Products

Workflow Improvements

Feature:
Previously any dialog or drawing mode had to be closed before switching to a different analysis. Now many of them can remain open. For example, you can now leave the Draw Graph window open as you change analyses, to compare results across analyses. Similarly you can remain in Draw Material mode as you change analyses, to make changes to materials across many analyses.

Feature:
Add "Current" time selection to Draw Graph, to graph using the time step selected globally.

Feature:
The list of time steps in Draw Graph are updated while solving.

Feature:
An "Apply" button has been added to the Set Units and Scale dialog box to make it easier to test changes to the problem's scale and extents.

DXF Improvements

Feature:
DXF import--via File Import Regions and via Sketch Pictures--is now capable of importing 3D DXF files. When a file's entities are determined to fall on a 3D X-Z plane, they are re-oriented to align with the 2D X-Y GeoStudio plane. The orientation of the 3D DXF plane is determined by calculating the normal vector of the 3D elements. This is currently limited to a single plane in 3D-space.

Feature:
When importing regions from a DXF file, GeoStudio was limited to importing only polylines whose "closed" property was set to "yes". This functionality has been extended to include polylines whose start and end points meet. In addition, GeoStudio now supports importing closed HATCH elements as regions.

Feature:
When using Sketch Pictures to import a DXF, GeoStudio now has improved MTEXT handling, including MTEXT with varying formatting, or rotated MTEXT.

Feature:
An "Apply" button when importing DXF files as regions or as sketch pictures allows adjustments to be made while importing.

Bug fix:
When using Sketch Image to import a DXF file, entities were painted black instead of using the layer color.

Performance Improvements

Feature:
GeoStudio is much more responsive when working with large files that contain many analyses, many time steps, or a large domain mesh. For example, the files will open much faster, the Solver will start running more quickly, GeoStudio is more responsive while solving, and Results view is much more responsive when you switch between analyses.

Feature:
Overall rendering speed has been increased by 200-400%. GeoStudio should now be more responsive when contouring large meshes.

New Languages

Feature:
GeoStudio has been translated into French. (The online help and the engineering methodology books are still in English; let us know if you would like these translated.)

Feature:
The Spanish edition has been updated with new translations, including the ability to display reports and object information in Spanish.

Other Changes

Feature:
For users who opt in, GeoStudio will send anonymous feature and usage information to GEO-SLOPE to help improve the software.

Change:
GeoStudio no longer automatically regenerates its mesh if it was created by a previous version. This change allows GeoStudio to open files created by previous versions faster and makes it easier to compare results with those generated by previous versions.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when editing the Y-Intercept field in KeyIn Functions for a function that does not cross the y-axis.

Bug fix:
When using multiple Custom Locations in Draw Graph, a node selected twice would produce two graph locations.

Bug fix:
Draw Graph may crash when plotting vs. time, for analyses with time units defined in seconds and large time values (larger than 2e+9 seconds or 75 years).

Bug fix:
Text near the page boundaries would sometimes be cut off when printing or copying the entire page.

Bug fix:
After deleting the Template Folder path and exiting, GeoStudio would crash the next time it was run.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash while accessing files on a network drive that had been disconnected.

Bug fix:
On a computer with IE11 installed, the list of analyses on the "file information" view overlapped the filename.

Bug fix:
In some rare cases, results may fail to be written to file without any error messages.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
SLOPE/W can now use a new “Root Finder” search method to improve the rate of convergence for some types of limit equilibrium stability problems. This method forecasts the required percentage of the inter-slice force function (lambda) based on previous estimates using a non-linear function. The non-linear prediction can sometimes reduce the number of iterations required to find the converged lambda in comparison to the “Linear” search method.

Feature:
In Draw Graph, the graph of Lambda vs. F of S includes a point indicating the factor of safety returned by the search method.

Feature:
When using the Linear search method in SLOPE/W, you can now control the Lambda value at which a solution must be obtained. Previously, this value was always 0.2.

Feature:
Improved the 3-stage rapid drawdown implementation so that the undrained strengths more closely match published results.

Feature:
Improved the responsiveness of the Slip Surfaces window.

Feature:
Free drainage materials can now be modeled in a SLOPE/W staged analysis by setting the R Envelope parameters to equal the material's Cohesion and Phi values.

Feature:
SLOPE/W now displays more detailed error messages when a slip surface cannot converge to a solution.

Change:
"Probability Functions" are now more appropriately titled "Probabilistic Offset Functions". This more clearly declares that each 'Probabilistic Offset Function" is not automatically fit to the range of the parameter. Instead, the range of each function should be applicable to the range of the parameter(s) to which it is applied.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when performing a probabilistic analysis with spatial variation when no slip slices were generated.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash in View Slice Information while viewing the results of a SLOPE/W analysis that had a geometrically invalid slip surface.

Bug fix:
A 992 error FOS could be generated when the X and Y coordinates were large (in the millions).

Bug fix:
Some FOS error messages were incorrect in the Sensitivity dialog.

Bug fix:
Some analysis methods, such as Janbu and Bishop, were not showing the correct Applied Lambda in View Slice Information.

Bug fix:
In some cases (when the number of starting points is low) the "optimized" factor of safety may be larger than the critical slip surface.

Bug fix:
The Resistance Reduction Factor was not applied in a geosynthetic reinforcement when the Pullout Resistance was calculated from Interface Adhesion and Interface Shear Angle.

SEEP/W

Bug fix:
When using a unit gradient boundary condition and an anisotropic material, any anisotropy with different Ky/Kx ratios would result in the wrong applied flux at the unit gradient boundary.

SIGMA/W

Feature:
The units displayed in the column header for an X-Velocity displacement boundary function were incorrect.

QUAKE/W

Bug fix:
The units displayed in the column header for an X-Velocity displacement boundary function were incorrect.

CTRAN/W

Bug fix:
In a particle tracking analysis, the user-defined Starting Time was ignored, and always assumed to be zero. This could result in an overestimated travel distance if the actual Starting Time was non-zero.

Bug fix:
The Particle Shading view preference was not working properly.

Bug fix:
"View Particle Information" could show incorrect values when a different current time is selected.

Bug fix:
Choosing View Mass Accumulation from the menu would instead go to View Particle Information. This was a regression introduced in version 8.13.0.

VADOSE/W

Bug fix:
When using a unit gradient boundary condition and an anisotropic material, any anisotropy with different Ky/Kx ratios would result in the wrong applied flux at the unit gradient boundary.

8.14.1.10087

These additional changes were made in version 8.14.1.10087

All Products

Feature:
An "Apply" button has been added to the Set Units and Scale dialog box to make it easier to test changes to the problem's scale and extents.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio fails to correctly delete old files in its temporary file cache. This can generate unexpected behavior while re-solving existing analyses, such as strange contours or a crash when viewing results after re-solving. To work around this problem, close and re-open GeoStudio after solving.

Bug fix:
File Save As would fail if GeoStudio was unable to write to the original file (such as if the current user did not have permissions or the disk was full).

SLOPE/W

Feature:
Draw Graph performance was improved for analyses with a large number of slip surfaces.

Feature:
Further improved the responsiveness of the Slip Surfaces window.

Bug fix:
An unnecessary error message would be displayed when selecting a slip surface for which no results were available. This was a regression introduced in version 8.14.0.

Bug fix:
Some unnecessary warnings were logged while saving a file as an older version.

8.14.2.11317

These additional changes were made in version 8.14.2.11317

All Products

Bug fix:
In View Result Information, selecting nodes by dragging a rectangle could sometimes be extremely slow.

Bug fix:
Imported WMF pictures were not displayed properly. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

Bug fix:
With the "Mesh" View Preference turned on, drawing a material on a region which previously did not have a material, the mesh would not be displayed in that region. The problem could be worked around using View - Redraw, manually regenerating the mesh using Draw - Mesh Properties, saving the file, or solving. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when opening a file containing non-latin characters on a computer with a different locale setting. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
In some cases for a Monte-Carlo analysis, when Cohesion and Phi are both specified in Set Probabilistic Parameters and a C-Phi correlation coefficient is specified, results may be incorrect.

Bug fix:
Under some rare circumstances, the SLOPE/W solver could stop responding (hang).

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when viewing results from a GeoStudio 2007 file. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

Bug fix:
In some cases for a Monte-Carlo analysis, when Cohesion and Phi are both specified in Set Probabilistic Parameters and a C-Phi correlation coefficient is specified, results may be incorrect.

SEEP/W

Change:
The Plan View analysis in SEEP/W ensured that the saturated conductivity of a K-function was used even if the pore-water pressure was negative. Although the restriction is theoretically correct, it prevented an add-in material model from receiving the actual solved pore-water pressure when it was negative. The restriction was removed because the Saturated Only model can be used in place of the Saturated-Unsaturated material model to ensure the saturated conductivity is used in the Plan View analysis.

TEMP/W

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when defining a Convective Surface Fluid temperature function. (This was a regression introduced in 8.13.0.)

Bug fix:
Climate data import did not work. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

VADOSE/W

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when defining a Convective Surface Fluid temperature function. (This was a regression introduced in 8.13.0.)

Bug fix:
Climate data import did not work. (This was a regression introduced in 8.14.0.)

8.14.3.13430

These additional changes were made in version 8.14.3.13430

All Products

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio would not release unused space at the end of a .Gsz file. This caused .Gsz files to be larger than necessary. This was a regression introduced in version 8.14.0.

Bug fix:
The Solve Manager may report "Results out of date" when in fact nothing has changed.

Bug fix:
When printing, the Fit to Page button did not properly scale the image to a single page.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
In some cases the solver displays the error “Slip surface calculation error … Cohesive Strength has a value of None” when solving analyses using the S=f(overburden) material model, because the minimum strength associated with the material was ignored. This bug was introduced in the May 2012 Release (version 8.0.4).

Bug fix:
The solver can compute incorrect results when slip surfaces intersect bedrock layers at the ground surface. Intersecting bedrock can truncate the slip surface, but the interslice function was using the original slip surface extents in its calculations. This could result in incorrect results when using the Morgenstern-Price half sine, clipped sine, trapezoidal, or fully specified side functions.

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
GeoStudio crashes when in Results view for a SIGMA/W analysis that has not been solved. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.14.0.

GeoStudio 2012, May 2014 Release

History

• version 8.13.1 - May 17, 2014 - minor update to fix a few specific bugs

• version 8.13.3 - September 21, 2015 - minor update to fix a few specific bugs

• version 8.13.4 - October 21, 2016 - minor update to fix a few specific bugs

Highlights

Here are some of the main areas of focus for this release:

Stability improvements and bug fixes - This release includes many changes that increase stability, improve performance, and fix reported issues in all GeoStudio products.

GeoStudio 2014 Preview Update - The updated GeoStudio 2014 Preview includes support for multi-physics analyses and a new saturated-unsaturated SEEP/W formulation.

Windows 8.1 - This release is officially supported on Windows 8.1.

Licensing - More effort has been put toward making licensing work more quickly and smoothly.

GeoStudio 2014 Preview

The GeoStudio 2014 Preview is included when you install the GeoStudio 2012 May 2014 Release. The primary focus for this development cycle has been on improving support for multi-physics analysis. This release brings forward the saturated-unsaturated SEEP/W formulation into the Preview and the ability to conduct heat advection analysis with flowing water.

All Products

Feature:
The solver now runs as a lower priority process, allowing GeoStudio and other applications running on the same computer to be more responsive while solving.

Feature:
The GeoStudio finite element Parallel Direct Equation Solver is now up to 10% faster.

Feature:
Improvements were made to the responsiveness of the application, especially while opening files, solving, and saving.

Change:
To see a full update of each analysis' status in the Solve Manager window, you must now hit the Refresh button. Basic status information such as the last solved time and any verification errors will continue to be updated any time a file is opened or saved; however, testing whether the solution is "out-of-date" can take a long time, so this now only occurs when you click the Refresh button.

Bug fix:
A number of crashes have been fixed that were reported by users choosing to send error information to Microsoft after a crash.

Licensing

Feature:
GeoStudio now supports activated licenses that can be used over Remote Desktop.

Feature:
Improved the stability and responsiveness of license management.

Change:
Basic and Student license restrictions are enforced at the time the file is saved, to prevent accidentally saving a file that can no longer be opened without a full license.

Bug fix:
While upgrading, setup could incorrectly indicate that some licenses would not work with the new release because their maintenance had expired.

Bug fix:
In some cases it was not possible to return a license because the server thought the license had already been returned.

Bug fix:
In some cases a standalone license could end up being installed on a license server, or a server license on a client.

Feature:
An activated license could be broken when major changes have been made to the computer on which it was activated. GeoStudio will now repair it the next time it is run.

DXF

Feature:
When importing a DXF as a picture using Sketch Pictures, the page origin, scale and extents can be adjusted automatically to fit the DXF entities, in a manner similar to File Import Regions.

Change:
Importing a DXF (as an image in Sketch Pictures or as regions in File Import Regions) now uses the User Coordinate System (UCS) of the DXF file if one is defined.

Feature:
GeoStudio now fully supports Unicode throughout the product. This means you can use file names in any language. When changing GeoStudio's display language, you therefore are no longer required to change non-Unicode settings on your system. Simply choose a language from the Edit Options dialog and restart GeoStudio.

Feature:
The default language in GeoStudio is now the selected Windows display language (for example, Chinese). If a Windows display language is unsupported by GeoStudio then the language in GeoStudio will default to English.

Bug fix:
In the Result Times window, in some cases clicking on an earlier time step would cause all subsequent time steps to disappear from the list.

Bug fix:
Not all results (such as Safety Maps and Contours) were available in Sketch Text.

Bug fix:
When creating a new file, GeoStudio's Start Page was displayed instead of the File Properties view.

Bug fix:
After saving an analysis with exponential time steps, KeyIn Analyses and View Report both show a missing value in Initial Increment Size, unless the default Initial Increment Size value is overridden by a user specified value.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when trying to generate an invalid mesh.

Bug fix:
Starting the solver from the last saved step would overwrite some previously computed results on the domain, such as the number of unconverged nodes and cumulative values.

Bug fix:
In KeyIn Analyses, line breaks in the Description edit box were lost while saving the file.

Bug fix:
Changing the Element Thickness or Central Angle in Set Units and Scale failed to re-generate the mesh with the new values. This bug is a regression introduced in the June 2013 Release.

Bug fix:
A Javascript error may be displayed in KeyIn Analyses after upgrading to Internet Explorer 11.

Bug fix:
Time increments were not being generated correctly when exponentially decreasing the increment size.

Bug fix:
Several bugs were fixed related to the Undo command.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when using File Save As and saving to a write-protected drive.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when changing a function's type from Add-In Function to any other type of function and back again.

Bug fix:
When choosing KeyIn Analyses or exiting GeoStudio, other windows may "flicker".

Bug fix:
In rare cases, cloning an analysis, saving the file, and then re-opening it could display an error about an invalid "CourantNumber"

Bug fix:
When a file containing legends was exported as an older GeoStudio version and then opened in a previous version of GeoStudio, a warning would be displayed.

Bug fix:
The Ground Surface Line could be incorrectly generated when there are null regions internal to the domain.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash generating a mesh when a meshed line cuts at an angle through a surface region.

Bug fix:
In some cases while resizing a window, other controls in the window will not be displayed properly.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when opening a file created by the original GeoStudio 2012 release in cases where the project contains a large number of regions.

Bug fix:
AddIn functions with fields containing the character sequence "NAN" or "IND" would not be read correctly from file. This could result in failure or wrong answers in analyses using these AddIn functions.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
Added the ability to adjust the height of a piezometric line during a probability or sensitivity analysis. This feature behaves in a similar manner to GeoStudio 2007.

Feature:
The reinforcement length and angle are now displayed in the KeyIn Reinforcements dialog box.

Bug fix:
Slip surfaces obtained from a parent analysis could not be optimized.

Bug fix:
When using the Strength = f(depth) or Strength = f(datum) functions with a large rate of increase, GeoStudio could display an error message before checking for the min and max values.

Bug fix:
When using a parent analysis in SLOPE/W to compute a slip surface for the child analysis, there were some cases where an error would be generated in the solver when using the slip surface in the child analysis.

Bug fix:
In a Monte-Carlo analysis, a regression was introduced in version 8.12 with the use of the C-Phi correlation coefficient. If the "Set Probabilistic Parameters..." dialog was displayed, the correlation data was corrupted and the correlation coefficient was ignored.

Bug fix:
For a probabilistic analysis, the units displayed for P(failure) were incorrect in Sketch Text and in the graph of P(failure) vs. Time.

Bug fix:
Computations of localized FOS in a Newmark Analysis were using dynamic rather than static stresses. This bug affected the local stability factor, but did not affect the overall solution.

Bug fix:
The "Ignore seismic load in base shear strength computation" option in KeyIn Seismic Load was not working properly. When the option was used, the shear strength at the base of the slice was incorrect and the force polygon was not closed.

Bug fix:
Slip surfaces may be incorrectly reported as invalid ("air gap") when a steep region line intersects the slip surface.

Bug fix:
Safety map colors were incorrect: the range of colors did not extend all the way to the End Color.

Bug fix:
Some results were unavailable for the optimized slip surface.

Bug fix:
The pore water pressure at the base of a slice may be too large when the material is specified with a BBar and there is a surcharge load or ponded water.

Bug fix:
In some rare cases the solver could crash because a problem generating slip surface slices.

Bug fix:
The solver may never complete when a slip surface passes through only air and bedrock materials.

Bug fix:
The solver could crash when dealing with a large number of slip slices.

SEEP/W

Change:
The maximum value for Initial Rate in the hydraulic under relaxation criteria is now enforced as 1.0.

Change:
The K convergence graph is now based on the actual computed total head of an iteration. In the past, the under-relaxed total head was used. This change better highlights the actual K difference when a solution is not converged.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when a flux section contained a node that didn't belong to an element.

SIGMA/W

Change:
The maximum value for Initial Rate in the hydraulic under relaxation criteria is now enforced as 1.0.

Bug fix:
When using a function of Y Stress, the Ei and C values were only being updated based on the stresses in the parent analysis; now they are updated at the beginning of each time step.

Bug fix:
The solver could crash in an Insitu analysis when a boundary function is applied.

Bug fix:
When an E vs. Y stress function is used, or when a Total C vs. Total Y Stress function is used, the Y stresses are now based on Insitu stresses rather than on the stresses at the current iteration.

QUAKE/W

Change:
"Insitu Y Total Stress" and "Insitu PWP" are now saved to the .gsz file in the same way as they are by SIGMA/W, so that the insitu stresses computed by QUAKE/W can be used in SIGMA/W for Ei computation when needed.

Bug fix:
The solver was not computing the Liquefaction flag for Initial Static analyses.

Bug fix:
The Cohesion Prime and Phi Prime fields in KeyIn Materials were not displayed and could not be changed.

Bug fix:
The constant stress option, which resulted in an averaging of stresses within an element, has been removed from the insitu analysis. This option had already been removed from all analysis types within SIGMA/W at the original release of Version 8.

AIR/W

Change:
The maximum value for Initial Rate in the hydraulic under relaxation criteria is now enforced as 1.0.

VADOSE/W

Change:
The maximum value for Initial Rate in the hydraulic under relaxation criteria is now enforced as 1.0.

Bug fix:
When splitting a surface line of a surface region which has properties such as materials, boundary conditions etc., these properties were not being correctly applied on the newly generated regions after the split.

8.13.1.9253

These changes were made in version 8.13.1.9253

All Products

Bug fix:
When displaying a graph with a value of "distance/area", the units may be displayed incorrectly. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.13.0.

Bug fix:
Exporting to DXF produced a file that could not be opened by AutoCAD because it contained invalid group codes. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.13.0.

Bug fix:
Sketch Pictures showed a dialog to adjust page position and scale after selecting a file. This dialog only applies to importing DXF files and should not be shown for other file types. This bug was a regression introduced in version 8.13.0.

Bug fix:
On Windows 8.1 systems FLEXIDs would appear mulitple times in the License Management dialog.

VADOSE/W

Bug fix:
VADOSE/W was unable to solve an analysis with activated regions.

8.13.3.11312

These additional changes were made in version 8.13.3.11312

Highlights

This is a minor update to the previous May 2014 Release to fix a few specific problems.

All Products

Bug fix:
In View Result Information, selecting nodes by dragging a rectangle could sometimes be extremely slow.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
Under some rare circumstances, the SLOPE/W solver could stop responding (hang).

Bug fix:
In some cases for a Monte-Carlo analysis, when Cohesion and Phi are both specified in Set Probabilistic Parameters and a C-Phi correlation coefficient is specified, results may be incorrect.

8.13.4.13430

These changes were made in version 8.13.4.13401

Highlights

This is a minor update to the previous May 2014 Release to fix a few specific problems.

All Products

Bug fix:
When printing, the Fit to Page button did not properly scale the image to a single page.

Bug fix:
The Solve Manager may report 'Results out of date' when in fact nothing has changed.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
The solver can compute incorrect results when slip surfaces intersect bedrock layers at the ground surface. Intersecting bedrock can truncate the slip surface, but the interslice function was using the original slip surface extents in its calculations. This could result in incorrect results when using the Morgenstern-Price half sine, clipped sine, trapezoidal, or fully specified side functions.

Bug fix:
In some cases the solver displays the error “Slip surface calculation error … Cohesive Strength has a value of None” when solving analyses using the S=f(overburden) material model, because the minimum strength associated with the material was ignored. This bug was introduced in the May 2012 Release (version 8.0.4).

GeoStudio 2012, September 2013 Release

History

• version 8.12.3 - 29 Oct 2013 - This is a minor update to the previous September 2013 Release to fix two specific bugs.

• version 8.12.4 - September 30, 2015 - minor update to fix a few specific bugs

Highlights

Here are some of the main areas of focus for this release:

SLOPE/W - A SLOPE/W analysis can now specify another SLOPE/W analysis as its "parent". This "child" analysis can then obtain its slip surfaces from its parent's saved slip surfaces (the top ten most critical, for example). This feature can be helpful when doing sensitivity or probabilistic analyses in which the analyses can be done only on the saved critical slip surfaces rather than on every slip surface.

We've continued to improve the speed of the SLOPE/W solver on computers with multiple cores.

SLOPE/W's factor of safety graphs have been moved into Draw Graph, and we've expanded the number of slice parameters that can be graphed. GeoStudio will automatically add common graphs when you open or create a file.

The "High Strength" material can now control unit weight in the unsaturated zone.

Licensing - We put a lot of effort into making licensing work more smoothly with this release. A new wizard steps you through installing any kind of license. When a license is not available, the error message should be helpful, clear, and offer troubleshooting steps.

To avoid installing a newer version of GeoStudio that is not covered by your license’s maintenance period, Setup will do its best to detect your licenses and warn you about potential license problems before you upgrade. We’ve also updated our web site to more consistently mention what maintenance is required for a specific GeoStudio version.

Functions - Time-based functions that can be "cycled" were sometimes difficult to use. Now they include a "period" parameter to control how long the cycled period is, and they no longer project "backward" in time.

Pictures - We've added support for additional common file types, including JPEG, GIF, PNG, and more. Pictures (and other objects) can be resized while maintaining their original proportions by dragging one of the corner handles in Modify Objects.

Sharing Files Between Versions - Sharing .gsz files with people running earlier versions of GeoStudio? The File Export as Previous Version command now supports saving files in earlier GeoStudio 2012 formats (from before November 2012).

Sorting - Lists of objects (such as the list of materials in KeyIn Materials) are now sorted by the object's name. You can change sorting by clicking on a column header.

All Products

Changes related to legends:

Feature:
Add legends to your drawing for contours, factor of safety contours, and safety map. The tutorial files for each product have also been updated to demonstrate this new feature.

Changes related to licensing:

Feature:
Common licensing-related error messages have been reworded to be more helpful in identifying the problem.

Feature:
The Test button in the License Manager Network Settings tab is now available in both administrator and non-administrator modes, to test the availability of a license server.

Feature:
Improved error messages for some common license activation failures.
New License Installation wizard to help install licenses.

Bug fix:
In some cases, GeoStudio could acquire a network license from a server even after the server name was removed from the list of license servers.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio would crash in KeyIn Analyses if you attempted to create an analysis without an appropriate license.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash on shutdown if a connection to a licensing server is lost while solving.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash if it was installed on the same computer as lmadmin, and lmadmin was subsequently uninstalled.

Bug fix:
While upgrading GeoStudio, setup will warn you if any of your licenses' maintenance period does not support the new version of GeoStudio.

Changes related to graphs:

Feature:
In Draw Graph, the tooltip is always displayed if the mouse is in the plot area, making it easier to see coordinates of specific points.

Feature:
GeoStudio now adds pre-defined graphs in Draw Graph for common scenarios.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when using the Draw Graph command to plot data from the initial conditions of a parent analysis.

Bug fix:
Exiting "Set Locations" in Draw Graph by right clicking would put the dialog into a state where "Set Locations" could not be used for a second time without first closing and re-opening the Draw Graph dialog.

Changes related to functions:

Feature:
Functions that can be "cycled" (where the x value is time) now include a "period" parameter to control how long the cycled period is. This removes the need to re-enter the first data point at the end of the list to ensure a smooth function.

Change:
Functions vs. time are no longer projected "backward". They are only defined beginning at the first user-specified x value.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash in KeyIn Functions in some cases if a function had a single point and was cycled.

Change:
The Sketch Pictures dialog box has been reorganized to be easier to use.

Bug fix:
Sketch Pictures that were "reflected" by scaling them using Modify Objects could no longer be selected.

Change:
Adding images using Sketch Images no longer resizes the page, since it is difficult to predict the size of an image upon insertion.

Feature:
In Modify Objects, dragging one of the corner handles will now scale the selected objects proportionally.

Changes related to sharing files:

Feature:
The File Export as Previous Version command now supports saving files in earlier GeoStudio 2012 formats (from before November 2012). This can be useful for sharing files with people running earlier versions of GeoStudio 2012.

Changes related to sorting:

Feature:
Lists of objects (such as the list of materials in KeyIn Materials) can be sorted by clicking on a column header.

Other changes:

Bug fix:
In rare cases, GeoStudio may fail to print because of incompatible printer drivers.

Bug fix:
An analysis could lose all its material assignments if prompted to save an existing file from the Solve Manager.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could become unresponsive when changing to Results View for a transient analysis.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash in KeyIn Analyses when you reference results from an external file and select "(all)" as the time selection.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when adding a point to an existing line.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash while generating a mesh.

Bug fix:
Results could be invalid when solving an axisymmetric analysis with a central angle of 360 degrees.

Bug fix:
Objects that should not be modified in Results View, such as regions and points, can no longer be selected in Modify Objects.

Bug fix:
When two analysis names differed only by case, their results could be invalid and GeoStudio would always indicate their results were out of date. GeoStudio now takes case into account when enforcing the rule that two analyses cannot have the same name.

Bug fix:
Some Sketch commands could not be undone properly using Undo/Redo.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
A SLOPE/W analysis can now specify another SLOPE/W analysis as its "parent". This "child" analysis can then obtain its slip surfaces from its parent's saved slip surfaces (the top ten most critical, for example). This feature can be helpful when doing sensitivity or probabilistic analyses in which the analyses can be done only on the saved critical slip surfaces rather than on every slip surface.

Change:
Access to the slip surface graphs has been moved from the Slip Surfaces docking window to Draw Graph.

Feature:
Slope probabilistic analyses now solve more quickly on computers with multiple cores. The most noticeable gains will be seen when running analyses with a large number of Monte Carlo trials and few slip surfaces.

Feature:
Slope analyses with optimization now solve more quickly on computers with multiple cores.

Feature:
The unit weight of material above the water table can now be computed based on the material's Volumetric Water Content function.

Feature:
The maximum number of iterations for a limit equilibrium analysis can now be changed under KeyIn Analyses.

Feature:
The "High Strength" material can now control unit weight in the unsaturated zone under its advanced tab.

Change:
GeoStudio performs a more accurate slice unit weight computation when solving an analysis with a water table.

Bug fix:
With very small grid spacing, Draw Slip Surface Entry/Exit is not able to drag the entry/exit range.

Bug fix:
User-specified slip surface axis points were being ignored by the solver when using Grid and Radius or Entry and Exit.

Bug fix:
When using spatial variation on a probabilistic Slope analysis, the random sampling was not always correct. Results for Slope analyses using spatial variation may change slightly.

Bug fix:
When opening a file created by GeoStudio 2007, if seismic vertical load is missing, then slice weight and seismic force would be computed incorrectly.

Bug fix:
When Probabilistic/Sensitivity Point Load modifiers were added to more than one analysis, only the first modifier was applied correctly. In such cases you may see incorrect or no probabilistic distribution in the results.

Bug fix:
When cloning an analysis with probabilistic/sensitivity modifiers, modifier tags under "Analysis" were missing.

Bug fix:
Solving a probabilistic analysis with a small number of runs would occasionally cause a crash.

Bug fix:
Sensitivity graphs could include error codes (9xx values) in the graphs.

Bug fix:
Thin slices at the ends of a slip surface could be assigned the wrong material.

Bug fix:
Slice unit weight computations are now more accurate in cases where a different unit weight is used in the unsaturated zone.

Bug fix:
View Slice Info and Draw Graph will now work with an Add-In's Custom Parameter Results for slice data.

Bug fix:
In KeyIn Slip Surface Axes, hitting F1 for online help went to the wrong topic.

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
A material's K0 is no longer restricted to being greater than a calculated K0.

Bug fix:
When a Student or Basic license is used, the "Saturated Zone Only" checkbox in KeyIn Analyses is not set correctly when opening a file.

TEMP/W

Change:
Improved the thermal functions of the provided sample materials, so that the estimated "Unfrozen Water Content Functions" and the estimated "Thermal Conductivity Functions" are smooth in both arithmetic and logarithmic views.

CTRAN/W

Change:
The "Initial Particle Conditions from" option has been removed from KeyIn Analyses.

Bug fix:
In Results View, data about the resultant particle is displayed for the wrong time step (current step + 1 iteration).

Bug fix:
The solver was storing an incorrect value for the nodal Total Head in a particle tracking analysis when transient seepage results were used.

GeoStudio 2014 Preview

Bug fix:
In some cases the TEMP/W solver could generate invalid results, which could subsequently cause GeoStudio to crash in View Result Information.

Bug fix:
The unfrozen volumetric water content displayed in Results View via Draw - Graph of View - Result Information was being set equal to the in situ volumetric water content if the Simplified Thermal Model was used. The unfrozen VWC is now correctly displayed as 0 if the temperature is below the phase change temperature.

8.12.3.7901

These changes were made in version 8.12.3.7901

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
Unit weight was not affected by volumetric water content function in the unsaturated zone.

QUAKE/W

Feature:
Structural elements were not being allowed with a Basic license.

8.12.4.11377

These changes were made in version 8.12.4.11377

All Products

Bug fix:
In View Result Information, selecting nodes by dragging a rectangle could sometimes be extremely slow.

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
Under some rare circumstances, the SLOPE/W solver could stop responding (hang).

Bug fix:
In some cases for a Monte-Carlo analysis, when Cohesion and Phi are both specified in Set Probabilistic Parameters and a C-Phi correlation coefficient is specified, results may be incorrect.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

GeoStudio 2012, June 2013 Release

GeoStudio 2014 Preview

A preview of GeoStudio 2014 is now available! This preview offers significant improvements to TEMP/W, including a new Land-Climate Interaction boundary condition, improved thermosyphon and convective surface boundary conditions, and support for 1D analyses.

All Products - New Features

The biggest changes introduced in this release that affect all GeoStudio products include faster solve times, a richer experience with .gsz files in the Windows shell, a smoother installation experience, and a Spanish language option. The full list of changes includes:

Feature:
Solve times have been improved in all products, especially on computers with multiple cores.

Feature:
Solve time has been improved when using the finite element Parallel Direct Equation Solver.

Feature:
When opening a file created with an older version of GeoStudio (such as GeoStudio 2007) and then saving it, GeoStudio no longer strips out the old results.

Feature:
Solve times have been improved when solving files with many analyses.

Feature:
GeoStudio's installer has been improved, giving more help around licensing during upgrades and uninstalls.

Feature:
GeoStudio files (.gsz) are now more integrated with Windows Explorer, allowing you to search for words in the file, view thumbnails and previews, and get detailed information about file properties.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash in KeyIn Functions if you create a function with a single point and check the "Cycle" option.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when saving a file after deleting an analysis.

Bug fix:
Occasionally GeoLicense.exe may crash or may continue running in the background unnecessarily.

Bug fix:
For some types of analysis, results were not saved to the file if the solver was interrupted by pressing the Stop button. The results were available to be examined in Results View, but if GeoStudio was closed and then opened again, the results were no longer available.

Bug fix:
The Result Times list would update itself repeatedly while the analysis was being solved, making it difficult or impossible to select a new time step.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could be unresponsive for long periods of time when disconnected from a license server.

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio may consume too many licenses.

Bug fix:
A more helpful error message is displayed when opening a file without appropriate licenses.

Bug fix:
While solving, the progress bar may disappear unexpectedly.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when opening a file created by GeoStudio 2007, if GeoStudio 2007 would have displayed an error while opening it.

Bug fix:
When saving a file using the Save As XML option and saving overtop of an existing xml file, all files and subfolders in the same folder may have been deleted.

Bug fix:
In some cases GeoStudio was unable to print.

Bug fix:
If GeoStudio 2007 was uninstalled after GeoStudio 2012 was installed, and if the GeoStudio 2012 installer was no longer available, shortcuts to GeoStudio 2012 would ask for the location of the .msi file.

SLOPE/W

Change:
GeoStudio now allows a material's Total Phi to be set to zero in a staged rapid drawdown analysis.

Bug fix:
If a SIGMA/W and a SLOPE/W analysis shared a common material, and if in SLOPE/W the material's weight, cohesion, or sigma were changed to a linear function, the edit box for that particular property would no longer be visible under KeyIn Materials in the SIGMA/W analysis.

Bug fix:
Stopping a solve would display an error unnecessarily.

Bug fix:
Reinforcement loads could be computed incorrectly if the load only intersects the passive side of the slip surface.

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
If a SIGMA/W and a SLOPE/W analysis shared a common material, and if in SLOPE/W the material's weight, cohesion, or sigma were changed to a linear function, the edit box for that particular property would no longer be visible under KeyIn Materials in the SIGMA/W analysis.

QUAKE/W

Bug fix:
No results were available in View Result Information when selecting a beam.

Bug fix:
The solver may crash when solving an Insitu analysis that uses a Spatial PWP function.

TEMP/W

Bug fix:
In KeyIn Analyses, adding a Convective Heat Transfer analysis could end up creating four new analyses rather than two.

CTRAN/W

Bug fix:
In KeyIn Analyses, adding a Density-Dependent analysis could end up creating four new analyses rather than two.

Bug fix:
Buttons and links on the Start Page were unresponsive on Windows 8.

Bug fix:
The start page shows a red 'x' instead of each icon on older XP computers with IE6 installed.

SLOPE/W

Change:
A small change was made in the computation of the effective base normal stress for the Ordinary Method, for consistency with the equation presented by Duncan and Wright.

Bug fix:
For an analysis using PWP Conditions from 'Piezometric Line with Ru,' the solver was always using the Ru value, even for materials where 'Include Ru in PWP' was set to 'No.'

Bug fix:
Results view may take a long time to display when viewing multiple slip surfaces.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may crash when viewing multiple slip surfaces from a GeoStudio 2007 file that used Auto Locate.

SIGMA/W

Feature:
The hyperbolic model described by Duncan et al. (1980) has been added to SIGMA/W. The model is sometimes referred to as the hyperbolic E-B constitutive model because the bulk modulus (B) is considered to be constant while the elastic modulus (E) varies according to a hyperbolic relationship, resulting in non-linearity in both the volume and stress responses. The volumetric strain increment tends towards zero at failure as a result of this assumption, which is in keeping with the idea of a critical state. The new hyperbolic constitutive model also allows for specification of a ratio of unload-reload modulus number relative to the modulus number. The stress-strain response during unloading-reloading can therefore demonstrate a stiffer response as compared to the initial loading response, which is controlled by the user specified initial elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio.

Bug fix:
Fixed an occasional crash while solving.

QUAKE/W

Bug fix:
In KeyIn Earthquake Records, selecting all records and clicking Delete would not remove the records from the list.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

GeoStudio 2012, October 2012 Release

All Products

Feature:
A couple of changes have been made to lists (such as in the Solve Manager, KeyIn Materials, etc.): they will now remember any changes you make to their column widths, so that next time you display the list it looks the same as the previous time; Home, End, PgUp and PgDown keys now work as expected; double-clicking a column separator will adjust the column's width to include all its data; Ctrl-+ will adjust all column widths to include all data; columns line up better when printing; and column headers no longer allow clicking unless the list can be sorted (the only list that can be sorted at this point is the Slip Surfaces list).

Bug fix:
GeoStudio was unable to open a gsz archive containing more than 65,535 files (such as for analyses with a large number of time steps).

Bug fix:
Solving an analysis from a previous time step (after having stopped a solve in progress) may not produce the correct results.

Bug fix:
The Status column in the Solve Manager window was indicating the wrong date.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could be slow to start up and/or slow to start solving when configured to use network licensing with a license server that was not available.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash under certain conditions when clicking a checkbox in the Solve Manager window while in Results view.

Bug fix:
Draw Graph could occasionally appear to hang when graphing data across many time steps or in particularly large files.

Bug fix:
Draw Graph could crash under certain conditions.

Bug fix:
Moving a region's point on top of another one removed both points from the region.

Bug fix:
The Clone command has been removed from KeyIn Regions, Lines and Points, since it is not valid for those objects.

Bug fix:
When using multiple monitors, GeoStudio will no longer appear on a monitor that no longer exists.

Bug fix:
Opening a v7 Basic file may generate an error about exceeding the maximum number of elements.

Bug fix:
In Help - License Management - Available Licenses, the "Usage" button was disabled when a network activation license was selected.

Change:
Additional information about common license lifecycle tasks was added to the online help.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
Probabilistic and sensitivity analysis can now be performed on most material models and pore-water pressure parameters, including B-bar and Ru.

Feature:
The Slip Surfaces window has been improved: a Select Critical button to quickly jump to the critical slip surface; additional columns showing more information about slip surfaces; the ability to hide unwanted columns; export, copy and print; and icons indicating which column is being used for sorting.

Feature:
The Hoek-Brown shear strength function estimation algorithm was improved to produce a better splined fit through the data points at low confining stresses. The algorithm now varies non-linearly the confining stresses used to generate the splined function. The improvement may result in differences in the critical slip surface for shallower slip surfaces.

Bug fix:
Slip surface limits were being displayed even when they were invalid, and were not updating when the geometry changed.

Bug fix:
The total normal stresses were not always listed correctly in View Slice Information.

Bug fix:
Overburden stresses were not being computed correctly in the Strength=f(Overburden) soil model when using stresses from QUAKE/W or SIGMA/W.

Bug fix:
Viewing slice information for non-critical slip surfaces in a Newmark analysis may not display all slice forces, and may cause an error message to be displayed.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio may stop responding or become very slow when viewing body loads, especially with a large number of regions.

Bug fix:
Factor of Safety contours were not upgrading properly when opening a file created by an earlier version.

Bug fix:
When opening a file created by earlier versions, probabilistic and sensitivity material names and modifiers were not associated with the range function. In addition, multiple entries of the Base Case were shown in the Sensitivity Runs docking window.

Bug fix:
When surcharge loads were applied to the left and right sides of a vertical slope, the normal surcharge force could be computed incorrectly.

Bug fix:
The solver could crash when solving a block slip surface with vertical projection angles.

Bug fix:
Shear force direction was incorrect when applied perpendicular to the reinforcement if the direction of movement was right-to-left.

Bug fix:
Objects created entirely in a KeyIn dialog, such as KeyIn Point Loads, KeyIn Piezometric Lines, and KeyIn Reinforcements) could not be selected using Modify Objects.

Bug fix:
Some KeyIn dialogs with 'x' and 'y' edit boxes were not saving the 'x' value, requiring it to be re-typed.

SEEP/W

Bug fix:
Primary value boundary conditions were sometimes not being interpolated to the Gauss points for the purpose of material property calculations. Instead, the conditions at the end of the last step were being used. The resulting discrepancy in the material properties produced a slight error in the results. The error was only noticeable if the problem contained elements associated with primary value boundary conditions and material models that were non-linearly a function of the solution (e.g. saturated/unsaturated).

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
The SIGMA/W solver could crash when a Cam Clay material has a kappa value greater than or equal to the lambda value.

Bug fix:
Primary value boundary conditions were sometimes not being interpolated to the Gauss points for the purpose of material property calculations. Instead, the conditions at the end of the last step were being used. The resulting discrepancy in the material properties produced a slight error in the results. The error was only noticeable if the problem contained elements associated with primary value boundary conditions and material models that were non-linearly a function of the solution (e.g. saturated/unsaturated).

TEMP/W

Bug fix:
Primary value boundary conditions were sometimes not being interpolated to the Gauss points for the purpose of material property calculations. Instead, the conditions at the end of the last step were being used. The resulting discrepancy in the material properties produced a slight error in the results. The error was only noticeable if the problem contained elements associated with primary value boundary conditions and material models that were non-linearly a function of the solution (e.g. saturated/unsaturated).

AIR/W

Bug fix:
Primary value boundary conditions were sometimes not being interpolated to the Gauss points for the purpose of material property calculations. Instead, the conditions at the end of the last step were being used. The resulting discrepancy in the material properties produced a slight error in the results. The error was only noticeable if the problem contained elements associated with primary value boundary conditions and material models that were non-linearly a function of the solution (e.g. saturated/unsaturated).

VADOSE/W

Bug fix:
Primary value boundary conditions were sometimes not being interpolated to the Gauss points for the purpose of material property calculations. Instead, the conditions at the end of the last step were being used. The resulting discrepancy in the material properties produced a slight error in the results. The error was only noticeable if the problem contained elements associated with primary value boundary conditions and material models that were non-linearly a function of the solution (e.g. saturated/unsaturated).

GeoStudio 2012, July 2012 Release

All Products

Change:
In KeyIn Analyses, the list of custom elapsed times must now be separated by semicolons rather than commas, to avoid confusion in locales where commas are used as decimal characters or thousands separators.

GeoStudio 2012, July 2012 Release

All Products

Feature:
GeoStudio 2012 is now available in Simplified Chinese (PRC). By default, GeoStudio will automatically use the Chinese language when run on a computer whose language is set to Simplified Chinese (PRC), and will run in English in all other cases. To change the language, choose Edit - Options from the GeoStudio menu, then pick the desired language from the list. Our thanks to CnTech Co., Ltd. for their invaluable help with the translation.

Feature:
An improved installer and new tools are available for setting up a network license server. Further instructions are available online in a PDF file titled "Setting Up an Lmadmin License Server" at http://www.geo-slope.com/downloads/utilities.aspx.

Feature:
Speed improvements have been made while saving changes to disk, resulting in improved solve times and file save times, especially for larger projects.

Feature:
Wherever lists are displayed (such as the Slip Surface window), columns can be rearranged by dragging them, sorted by clicking on a column header, or hidden by right-clicking on a column header.

Change:
A number of changes were made to better support localization when displaying or entering values, such as using the correct decimal character, thousands separator, and list separator.

Bug fix:
Under certain conditions, GeoStudio was unable to solve some analyses, displaying an error about failing to open the file.

Bug fix:
Inserting a picture with Sketch Pictures caused GeoStudio to lose its geometry if there was a missing picture already in the list.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio now allows viewing results for an analysis whose parent analysis is not solved, as long as it does not depend on results from the parent.

Bug fix:
The finite element solvers would crash if an analysis used more than 255 materials.

Bug fix:
Files with Chinese names could not be opened from the Start Page. This issue likely affected other languages as well.

Bug fix:
DXF files generated while in Results View could be corrupted and impossible to open in AutoCAD.

Bug fix:
Boundary conditions could not be changed after cloning an analysis.

Bug fix:
When installed for the first time on a computer, GeoStudio would not display the File toolbar.

Bug fix:
When a file's time units are set to "Unspecified" (in Set Units and Scale), Draw Graph would not show any graphs that included a time dimension.

Bug fix:
Opening a GeoStudio 2007 file in GeoStudio 2012 would sometimes display upgrade warning messages that did not apply.

Bug fix:
Removing the grid values in the Set Grid Spacing command could cause GeoStudio to crash.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash when navigating the menu using the keyboard.

Bug fix:
In Draw Isolines, a selection of "All" or "Last" time steps would not be remembered when switching between analyses.

Bug fix:
In Draw Graph, select "All" time steps, change analyses, and the "All" would change to "Custom" and the graph would not display until time steps were re-selected.

Bug fix:
In Draw Graph, if "Custom Locations" were chosen while solving, they would not be saved.

Bug fix:
When restoring the GeoStudio window on a monitor to the left of the primary monitor, the leftmost column in lists would be too narrow.

Bug fix:
In certain graphs (including Slip Surface graphs), and when the axis range was negative, GeoStudio could crash when setting the option to view the graph in log format.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
SLOPE/W can now handle any arbitrary shape of the Shear-Normal strength function. The restriction of a function with positive slope is no longer required. Equivalent C and Phi values are computed to represent the specific strength at any effective normal stress at the base of a slice.

Change:
Slices with positive pore water pressure will be reported as having a pore air pressure of zero, because in such cases the pore air pressure is not used.

Bug fix:
When using an external file for PWP or Stress conditions in a SLOPE/W analysis, we may get incorrect values or crash during Solve or when switching into Results view and viewing a different slip surface.

Bug fix:
The solver would crash when encountering a slip surface with invalid material properties such as a negative unit weight, negative cohesion, or negative frictional angle. This may happen in probabilistic analyses when the distribution of the material parameters are not restricted (or capped) to be in the positive range. Now the slip surface will be given a 988 error code instead.

Bug fix:
SLOPE/W now better supports special cases in reinforcement, such as when the reinforcement starting point is defined inside the sliding mass, or when a reinforcement intersects the slip surface in multiple locations.

Bug fix:
When computing the geosynthetic bond strength at the base of a slice, the overburden stress was not being included in the surcharge load.

Bug fix:
The solver would crash when encountering an air gap with a zero volume. This condition can be caused by regions that are drawn next to each other but without sharing a line or point. Now such a condition will generate an error instead of crashing.

Bug fix:
Occasionally, the Draw Safety Map button in the toolbar would be unresponsive.

Bug fix:
The solver reports a 998 error under certain conditions, such as slip surfaces that intersect the bottom of the section because the ground surface line is not long enough.

Bug fix:
The solver could crash when a circular floating region shared a point with a background region.

Bug fix:
The solver was unable to find the intersecting point of a reinforcement load under certain conditions.

Bug fix:
When working in Results View with an analysis solved by an older version (e.g., GeoStudio 2007) using Grid and Radius, factor of safety contours may not be displayed, and it may not be possible to select slip surfaces graphically.

Bug fix:
After saving a GeoStudio 2012 file in GeoStudio 2007 format, if the file contained contours in a SLOPE/W analysis, GeoStudio 2007 would crash when trying to open the file.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio would crash when working with a file created in GeoStudio 2007 containing a GLE analysis with an optimized slip surface.

Bug fix:
The factor of safety displayed in the toolbar may not update when changing analyses.

Bug fix:
It was not possible to abort solving a probabilistic analysis, nor during the slip surface optimization sequence.

Bug fix:
For staged rapid drawdown analyses, a Total Phi of zero is now allowed.

Bug fix:
It was not possible to use arrow keys to navigate through the list of slip surfaces in the Slip Surfaces docking window when the Slice Information dialog was also displayed, because focus would go to the Slice Information window every time a new slip surface was selected.

SIGMA/W

Change:
Interface elements may now be given secondary nodes on any element edge. Previously the short edges were not allowed to have secondary nodes.

Bug fix:
Stress boundary conditions applied to the short edge of an interface element were not being distributed to the nodes.

Bug fix:
KeyIn Materials would not allow entering a unit weight of zero.

QUAKE/W

Bug fix:
KeyIn Materials would not allow entering a unit weight of zero.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio would occasionally crash under Windows XP when viewing a QUAKE/W analysis and switching into Results View

TEMP/W

Bug fix:
The adaptive time stepping algorithm could use the wrong climate data sets when calculating the time of salient events (e.g., sunrise, sunset, and rainfall onset and end).

VADOSE/W

Bug fix:
The adaptive time stepping algorithm could use the wrong climate data sets when calculating the time of salient events (e.g., sunrise, sunset, and rainfall onset and end).

GeoStudio 2012, May 2012 Release

SLOPE/W

Bug fix:
A bug was introduced in version 8.0.3 in Draw Graph which caused a slice's base angle to be displayed incorrectly for right-to-left slopes.

Bug fix:
In an add-in, the base angle for a slice was being reported incorrectly for right-to-left slopes.

VADOSE/W

Bug fix:
VADOSE/W did not compute vapor flow correctly when using imperial units. Unit inconsistencies in the formulation could cause the solver to stop, or the results could be in error if the analysis completed.

Feature:
If GeoStudio 2007 and GeoStudio 2012 are both installed, right-click on a .gsz file and choose "Open with", and you will have the option to open with either GeoStudio version.

Feature:
In KeyIn Analyses when the root item is selected, you can now see who last saved the file, the revision number, the file version, and the version of GeoStudio that was used to save the file. These properties are also included in reports generated using View Report. The "Last Modified By" property is also displayed on the Start Page when a file is open.

Feature:
Added online help (F1) to the License Manager.

Change:
GeoStudio now uses port 80 for license activation rather than port 8888, to make activation easier for companies that block port 8888.

Bug fix:
Several bugs were fixed which could cause GeoStudio to crash under various scenarios.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash on Windows XP when switching to Results View.

Bug fix:
At very small zoom factors some labels would appear extra large.

Bug fix:
The mouse scroll wheel would not work if GeoStudio was open in a secondary monitor to the left of the primary monitor.

Bug fix:
Region labels were covered by any other shaded area, such as contours, liquefaction zones, etc.

Bug fix:
In a particular Draw mode (e.g., Draw Initial Water Table), the view preference for the object being drawn is now disabled.

Bug fix:
Some controls (such as the "Time" list for initial conditions on the Settings tab of KeyIn Analyses) would not be displayed after switching tabs.

Bug fix:
When upgrading an older file, sketch text that uses the REPORT function (such as displaying a list of materials) would not upgrade properly.

Bug fix:
It was not possible to open a file created with version 5 or earlier.

Bug fix:
On computers where the locale settings were configured such that the decimal character was something other than a period, some controls would not allow any numbers to be entered other than whole integers. This bug affected KeyIn Points in all products, as well as a number of dialogs in SLOPE/W.

Bug fix:
When creating a new file from a template, GeoStudio would actually open and edit the template itself rather than just using it as the base for a new file.

Bug fix:
The Start Page would not refresh when project properties were changed using KeyIn Analyses, such as changing the Title, Author or Comments.

SLOPE/W

Feature:
The Slip Surface docking window now has a context menu with an option to "Select Critical Slip Surface".

Change:
Previously results for non-critical slip surfaces would not be available if the file was opened in a version of GeoStudio other than the one that originally solved the analysis. Now results will be shown, and the Solve Manager window will indicate if they may be out of date because of differences between versions or because of changes in a parent analysis.

Bug fix:
When a Shear Normal strength function is used, a resulting negative cohesion could cause the solver to stop.

Bug fix:
In geometry with a vertical wall or with a tension crack, slip surfaces and safety maps may not display properly.

Bug fix:
Add-Ins can now use GetParam to retrieve a material's Unit Weight.

Bug fix:
Computed reinforcement values were incorrect when the "F of S Dependent" option was set to Yes for a Reinforcement Load.

Bug fix:
The solver would crash if an analysis was selected that does both slip surface optimization and probabilistic.

Bug fix:
The solver was throwing out some valid slip surface results.

Bug fix:
The solver will now compute a factor of safety even with only one slice.

Bug fix:
GeoStudio could crash in Result View when the Safety Factor is 0 for some slices in a Finite Element stability analysis.

Bug fix:
When cloning a SLOPE/W analysis, the slip surface data was not being copied over to the new analysis.

SEEP/W

Bug fix:
For boundary conditions using a Total Head vs Volume boundary function—which always have the "Potential Seepage Face Review" option selected—the solver will now only perform a review when y < elevation. This restores the behavior used in GeoStudio 2007.

SIGMA/W

Bug fix:
Under certain conditions, no liquefaction shading would be displayed even when there were liquefaction zones.

GeoStudio 2012, March 2012 Release

Finite Element Products

Bug fix:
A floating line or circular region that intersected a background region did not always properly generate a finite element node at the intersection point.

Bug fix:
In rare cases, region lines could have overlapping finite element edges, which meant the solver could not compute results.

All Products

Change:
The File Toolbar was hidden by default, and had to be made visible using the View Toolbars command. It is now visible by default.

Change:
The default toolbar position has been changed so that all toolbars fit within 2 rows in the GeoStudio window, rather than being stacked on top of each other. This provides more space for the Define and Results views.

Bug fix:
While solving an analysis, if you switched into the Define view, the view would constantly update.

Bug fix:
When moving objects in Modify Objects and then selecting Undo, the selection rectangle would not update properly.

Bug fix:
Draw Regions - when drawing a new region, clicking on an existing region edge, and then clicking on another existing region edge, the intermediate points were not being added to the new region.

Bug fix:
Selecting a Contour of "(none)" in the Define view Analysis toolbar did not work. You had to use the Draw Contours command instead.

Bug fix:
The Grid increment up/down arrow buttons used an integer increment, rather than the proper Grid spacing increments used in GeoStudio 2007.

SLOPE/W

Change:
When you select a new Time Step or Sensitivity Run number in Results view, the minimum slip surface is now selected automatically. This means that your current slip surface number may change, but it will be the slip surface with the lowest factor of safety.

Change:
Right-clicking in the Slip Surfaces window in Results view will now display a context menu with a "Select Critical Slip" command.

Bug fix:
Cohesion and Phi material property values were not read in from GeoStudio 2007 files in a case where you had first chosen a Spatial Mohr Coulomb or Function model for Cohesion or Phi, then changed your material model to Mohr Coulomb and typed in constant values.

Bug fix:
In a Sensitivity analysis, there would sometimes be no slip surfaces shown when initially viewing the results.

Bug fix:
"Minimum Factor of Safety vs. Time" plot in Results view was plotting the factor of safety for the current slip surface, rather than the minimum factor of safety at each time step.

Bug fix:
Selecting a new time step did not update the factor of safety in the Results view if the selected analysis was a Sensitivity analysis.

Bug fix:
The View Sliding Mass information did not show correct values for a Janbu or Bishop analysis.

Change:
When selecting a Slip surface in Results view, a message is now displayed if the slip surface slice information does not match the stored slip surface factor of safety. This can happen when opening a GeoStudio 2007 file and viewing various slip surfaces in GeoStudio 2012. Re-solve the analysis to ensure that the displayed slice information matches the slip surface factor of safety.